SA set to raise age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old
South Australia's government is set to overhaul juvenile justice laws with a proposal to lift the minimum age for a child to be convicted of a crime. But advocates say the idea to lift the age from 10 to 12 doesn't go far enough.
Transcript
00:00 In facilities like this one, dozens of children aged 13 or under are detained each night across
00:08 Australia, which advocates say desperately needs to change.
00:12 We're always looking for, and we won't step away from the call to raise the age to 14.
00:18 For years, campaigners have urged state governments to lift the age of criminal responsibility,
00:23 arguing children as young as 10 cannot fully understand the consequences of their actions.
00:29 Now the South Australian government says it plans to act.
00:33 When a very young kid ends up in the criminal justice system, particularly in detention,
00:38 they're much more likely to be offenders later on.
00:40 In South Australia, currently children as young as 10 can be prosecuted and jailed for
00:45 crimes. Advocates had wanted that threshold raised to 14 years of age. But the new government
00:50 proposal will instead raise the age of responsibility to 12.
00:54 That would mean 10 and 11 year olds would go through a different system than the criminal
01:00 justice system, unless of course they were very serious offences.
01:03 Other states have also moved to increase the age of responsibility. It's now 12 in the
01:08 Northern Territory, while the ACT, Tasmania and Victoria have all committed to lifting
01:13 the age to 14.
01:15 Supporters for raising the age are glad South Australia is increasing the age, but are deeply
01:20 disappointed the state has chosen not to go further.
01:22 The call to action around raising the age of 14 would have a huge impact on reducing
01:28 the number of Aboriginal children and young people having contact with the youth justice
01:32 system and the criminal justice system.
01:34 These kids belong in school, they don't belong in prison. And so raising the age to 12 is
01:39 a good start, but the government needs to do a lot better.
01:43 There are some conditions on the idea to raise the age to 12. Children younger than that
01:47 could potentially still be held responsible for serious crimes like murder, manslaughter
01:52 or rape.
01:53 The proposal is open for consultation until the end of March, with a final decision to
01:57 be made after that.
01:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]