Last week, Australia’s new government in Northern Territory passed legislation lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10 years. This allows the territory to incarcerate 10-year-olds, a serious regression of children’s rights. The chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child responded that this action contravenes Australia’s obligations under the child rights convention.
The new law undoes progress made by the former government, which raised the age from 10 to 12 in 2022 in response to the findings of a 2017 Royal Commission that youth detention centers in Northern Territory “were not fit for accommodating, let alone rehabilitating, children and young people.” The commission documented instances of “verbal abuse, physical control and humiliation” and children being “denied access to basic human needs such as water, food and the use of toilets.”
The states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia also have the age of criminal responsibility at just 10.
First Nations children are vastly overrepresented in the Northern Territory criminal justice system, constituting 94 percent of children under 18 placed in detention during 2022-2023.
International standards recommend setting the age of criminal responsibility at no younger than 14, acknowledging that children below this age are still developing their frontal cortexes. This development affects their maturity and capacity for abstract reasoning, making them less likely to comprehend the consequences of their actions or navigate criminal proceedings effectively. Setting the age of criminal responsibility at 14 does not, however, preclude the government from making non-criminal, child-friendly, and multi-disciplinary interventions in response to unlawful behavior.
In 2021 at its UN Universal Periodic Review, 31 countries called upon Australia to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14.
Children who encounter the criminal justice system are among the most vulnerable in the country. The Northern Territory’s Office of the Children’s Commissioner recently reported that 94 percent of children under 14 held in detention in 2022-2023 had reported exposure to domestic or family violence.
This month, Northern Territory authorities also lifted the ban on the use of “spit hoods” on children. These restraint devices were banned in 2016 after the media aired harrowing footage showing a 17-year-old strapped to a chair and “hooded” for two hours.
Instead of pursuing punitive polices that violate children’s rights, the Northern Territory government should raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 and invest more in detention alternatives.
