Australia's push to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility: is 12 years old enough?

Estrella Pearce

Chapter 17 in Research Handbook on Youth Criminology, 2025, pp 298-323 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The debate surrounding the appropriate minimum age for criminal responsibility (MACR) has been ongoing in Australia for almost three decades. With a MACR set at 10 in all states and territories in Australia since 2000, Australia has been, alongside New Zealand, heavily criticised for having one of the lowest MACRs across the developed world. At a national level, no decision has been made about whether to raise the MACR and what age should be appropriate. Yet, with the long-standing debate gaining momentum following revelations in 2016 of patterns of abuse, deprivation and cruel punishment of vulnerable children in detention in the Northern Territory and the subsequent Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, some Australian jurisdictions are finally now increasing the MACR. However, as this chapter highlights, there remain many concerns with both recent and proposed changes that continue to fail to bring the MACR in Australia in line with internationally acceptable standards.

Keywords: Age of criminal responsibility; Doli incapax; MACR; Young people (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035300747
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