In 2019 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that 14 years be set as the minimum age of criminal responsibility, presently in Australia it is 10 years of age. Many here, including doctors and lawyers, have advocated a lifting of the age to 14. This week a meeting of the Council of Attorneys-General, made up of state, territories and federal leading law makers failed to reach agreement on the issue.

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said it was unlikely any reforms would be made until the final report was presented to the council in 2021.

"When you have nine jurisdictions at CAG you could have nine different responses, so I don't know whether there will be a consensus, but a decision will (eventually) be made one way or other," he said.

At last count there were around 600 children between the ages of 10 and 14 incarcerated in Australia. With so many instances of the failure of the juvenile justice system, why are we continuing to lock up children in this way?

I know a kid like this.
He's just turned 15, and has been on the wrong path doing harm to others and getting away with it more or less unrestrained for years.
Only now have the courts started to get really serious with him.

I don't know his full rap sheet, but some of them his accomplishments:

Assaults.
Grievous bodily harm upon a handicapped child.
Stealing cars multiple times
Break and enter, stealing
Bashing his mother and younger sister
Racial abuse to neighbours and others
Drugs as in cannibis and amphetamines
Weapons (such as weilding a machete in public - and he had the gaul to demand police give it back)
Firearms - apparently he has a pistol
(The police have looked for it but hes hidden it somewhere.)

This kid has been allowed to run rampant for years.
The only result possible at this stage is that he will continue to harm others, more or less anyone who comes into contact with them.

He has a don't care attitude, which you really can't beat.
And you can't change his behavior so long as he doesn't care.
He's going to keep harming others, and one day he might really go to far, if some of the stuff he's done already doesn't meet that criteria.
He may never stop harming others.

The stuff he gets away with as a kid, well any one of us would be locked up for 100 years and that's not an exaggeration.

Little criminals are already getting a free pass, and if you were harder on them, not softer on them maybe you could stop them from becoming bigger criminals.

I oppose anything that equates to more lenient punishment on 'out of control' kids. The sooner they understand that their are laws to prevent criminal behavior the better.

Shoplifting and smoking weed are one thing.
GBH on handicapped people, stealing cars, break and enters, assaults and firearms are something else.

[Cont.]
So look at the bigger picture:

You've got a 14yo (just turned 15) with a chip on his shoulder and a 'I don't care attitude'
Hes using amphetamines and has a firearm,
And a rapsheet that's probably bigger than all the forum members here combined.

And you're saying we should move to give these kids an extra 4 year free pass to get away with stuff?
Do you think these kids are not smart enough to know they can get away with things and work the system to their advantage?

I know there's an argument that you need to get to the bottom of their bad behavior, try and find the causes of why they act the way they do, especially as kids / adolescents, social worker type stuff,
But this doesn't necessarily equate to allowing them to run rampant and issuing them with a 'free pass' to not have to face the consequences of their actions and take any responsibility when they harm other members of the community.

Only the Latte sipping, pink coloured glasses wearing brigade would have the insanity of raising that age.
I have been at the receiving end of such kids to the extent that it has totally ruined my life plans.
Once they get to 16 they then become the figureheads who direct the younger ones to continue their ways largely with impunity. Only the severe cases end up in detention & only because the bureaucrats responsible for that mess find themselves unable to cover up any longer. Give parents & teachers & other citizens more freedom to discipline such kids & the rate will drop instantly. Police too should be made to go & chase these culprits without fear of upsetting the Paul1405's of this world.
I recall one incident quite a number of years ago when the then 16 year old well known local crim broke into a Bar & defecated at the Bar with a bottle of Whiskey in his hands right in front of the security camera. Everyone who saw the footage recognised him instantly yet he got off. How ? He simply argued that the bloke in the security footage wasn't him. Case closed !
How is something like this possible in our so-called fair & democratic society ?

If some of these weak jellybellies who don't want people of all ages to take responsibility for their actions had their way, there would be no punishment whatsoever. If horrible children are not punished, they grow into horrible adults. Have a look at the record of most criminals: they don't go bad a set age; most of them have been rotters since they stared walking and talking. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

again it would never be something that people would be given the vote on. The 'elite' have to hide behind very flawed 'studies' backed by experts. Unfortunately the Liberal party are as bad as the regressives.