Australia capital state to raise age of criminal responsibility News
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Australia capital state to raise age of criminal responsibility

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government Tuesday introduced a bill to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old to 14. The Justice (Age of Criminal Responsibility) Legislation Amendment Bill 2023  has been introduced in the Legislative Assembly, making the ACT the first Australian jurisdiction to increase the age of criminal responsibility to 14. The reform would take a two-stage approach by increasing the age of criminal responsibility for children up to 12 upon commencement, and will increase to 14 by 1 July, 2025.

ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said that the reforms seek to address the circumstances affecting young people in the criminal justice system. Rattenbury said:

This is a significant reform to justice in the ACT that recognises the evidence around young people who engage in anti-social behaviours. In the ACT we will seek to address the factors that cause young people to offend – like trauma, abuse, neglect or unmet health needs – and to help young people rather than criminalise them.

The bill will include a schedule of four serious classes of offence that will maintain a minimum age of criminal responsibility of 12 years old, even when the age is raised to 14 years. The bill will also incorporate a Therapeutic Correction Order, a “community-based therapeutic sentence” that will provide additional services for young criminal offenders which seeks to reduce the likelihood of reoffending.

Currently, the age of criminal responsibility is 10 years of age in all Australian jurisdictions except for the Northern Territory, where the minimum age is 12. Under a principle known as doli incapax, section 7.2 of the Criminal Code (Cth) states that children over the age of 10 but under 14, “can only be criminally responsible for an offence if the child knows that his or her conduct is wrong”, which is a question of fact and the burden of proof lies with the prosecution to establish this. The Australian federal government has been urged to raise the age of criminal responsibility in all jurisdictions to meet international standards.

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