Victoria to Raise Criminal Responsibility Age to 12 in Historic Reform

A policeman guards a crime scene in Sydney, Australia, on July 6, 2018. (Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images)

The Victorian government has introduced a new bill to the state parliament to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12.

If passed, Victoria will become the first Australian state to enforce a higher age threshold for criminal offences.

At present, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 10 for all states and territories except the Northern Territory, which raised it to 12 in August 2023.

However, the Australian Capital Territory will soon follow the Northern Territory, having passed legislation to raise the age to 14 by 2025 with some exceptions.

The new bill is the Victorian government’s attempt to reform the state’s youth justice system to improve community safety and reduce young people’s offending.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said the reform would tackle serious, high-risk, and repeat offending among young people, while providing them with opportunities to turn their lives around.

“Ten and 11-year-olds don’t belong in the criminal justice systems ... they belong in schools,” she told reporters.

Prior to the bill’s introduction, the Victorian government pledged to lift the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12, and eventually to 14 by 2027.

Changes Under New Legislation

Under the bill, children under 12 years old will not be arrested or sentenced when committing a crime but will instead be “transported to somewhere safe” and to someone who can take care of them.

“There will be the ability to use limited force, [such as] take the child by the arm ... to put the child into a vehicle in order to protect them, to protect the community,” Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said.

While police will still be able to lay charges against children under 12, they are required to issue verbal or written warnings on the spot for minor offences.

For more serious offences, children under 12 will be issued with a formal caution authorised by a police sergeant.

The Victorian government said the measure would divert offending children from further interaction with the justice system.

In addition, the new legislation will lower the age of prosecution for recruiting children into criminal activity from 21 to 18 years old to close a loophole currently being exploited by criminal gangs.

Other measures include a two-year trial of electronic monitoring for repeat teenage offenders on bail, an additional magistrate for the Children’s Court, and new sentencing principles for Aboriginal children.

The state government will also establish a new mechanism to allow victims to receive updates and provide information to the police, as well as strengthen processes that allow young people aged 16 and over to be transferred to adult prisons.

According to Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency, children aged 10 to 13 accounted for 1 percent of all alleged offender incidents compared to 10 percent in children aged 14 to 17.

Between 2012-13 and 2021-22, there was a 67 percent drop in the number of offences by 10-year-old children and a 43 percent reduction for that age.

However, new data from Victorian police showed that the number of offences by children aged 14 to 17 soared by 30 percent from 2022 to 2023.

‘Children Do Not Thrive In Prison’

While the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) supported the introduction of the new legislation, it opposed any new police powers that allowed children aged 10 and 11 to be treated in a way similar to criminalisation.

“This is a movement towards a legal system that prioritises early intervention, diversion and rehabilitation, and we hoped that the Youth Justice Bill would help us get there,” VALS CEO Nerita Waight said.

“But trialling electronic ankle bracelets on children is a step in the completely wrong direction.

“Children do not thrive in prison. We encourage all members of the Victorian Parliament to carefully consider this.”

Meanwhile, Shadow Attorney-General Michael O'Brien said the new bill did not tackle the issue of growing youth crime by raising the age of criminal responsibility.

“It’s simply a plan to redefine it and pretend it isn’t there,” he said.