GPV/KCV says the Victorian Government backflip on youth justice is shameful!
Statement from GPV/KCV
Like many other organisations, GPV/KCV has in the past urged the Victorian Government to raise they age of criminal responsibility to 14 years of age. In doing so we are mindful of the reasons why it is inappropriate to assume that the child brain is responsible in the same way as an adult brain. We have never argued that children who commit crimes should not face consequences. Rather, we argue that the consequences need to be appropriate to their young age and designed to divert them away from future offending. Further, we are embarrassed by the fact that we now lag way behind so many other countries in the world who have lifted the age of criminal responsibility.
The Victorian Government has asked us to carry a heavy burden of collective shame and embarrassment on this matter.
Raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12
A statement from Anne McLeish, Director Kinship Carers Victoria
27 April 2023
GPV/KCV welcomes the decision made by the Victorian Cabinet on Monday to lift the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12. As GPV/KCV has campaigned for this issue for some time, we are disappointed with the mystifying decision to wait another few years before lifting the age limit to 14.
However, equally mystifying and disappointing are the views being expressed suggesting that lifting the age of criminal responsibility will mean children are not held accountable. These views come from a narrow band of thinking about the most effective ways to hold children responsible for their actions. As a society we need to do so without creating a lifelong tag for children as criminals that may prevent them from becoming the citizens in adulthood we all would want.
Doli incapax
It can only be hoped that in the interim the courts continue to do what they can to make use of the doli incapax provisions in law which describe the inability of children under the minimum age of criminal responsibility to form criminal intent. If a child is aged over 10 years but under 14, there is a common law presumption of doli incapax.
Anne McLeish OAM, Director GPV/KCV
Raise the Age Campaign
The newly elected ACT Government has committed to change the law and raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility!
When the state and territory Attorneys-General met on 29 July 2020 they made the disappointing decision to ignore overwhelming evidence that raising the age will give Australian kids a better chance at life. They said children as young as 10 years old might have to wait another 12 months before politicians would decide whether or not to do the right thing.
The ACT Government has shown what’s possible!
Children across Australia should be in schools and playgrounds, not prison cells. As the ACT Government has shown leadership, every other state and territory government must follow suit and change their laws so that children are no longer hauled before courts and locked away in jails.
Here’s what you can do:
- Build momentum by encouraging your family and friends to sign onto the petition at raisetheage.org.au
We won’t stop until we have #RaisedTheAge in every state and territory in Australia.