Changing the record
In Australia, children as young as 10 years old are prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to juvenile detention. That’s why Wotton + Kearney went into a pro-bono partnership with Change the Record – the country’s only national Aboriginal-led justice coalition – to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
Changing the record
In Australia, children as young as 10 years old are prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to juvenile detention. That’s why Wotton + Kearney went into a pro-bono partnership with Change the Record – the country’s only national Aboriginal-led justice coalition – to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
Wotton + Kearney has a pro bono partnership with Change the Record to support the campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Australia from 10 to 14 years of age. This partnership is a case study in how targeted pro bono assistance can make a valuable impact.
Wotton + Kearney is the specialist insurance law firm of choice for some of the largest insurers, brokers and private companies in Australia, New Zealand and around the world. The firm has also made a commitment to being a responsible business and contributing to its communities through its Community Footprint program. Change the Record is an organisation with a mission to end the disproportionate impact of incarceration and family violence on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
With a focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Reduced Inequalities, Wotton + Kearney seized the opportunity to assist Change the Record with this important campaign.
Children belong in homes and school, not in prison
In Australia, children as young as 10 years old are prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to juvenile detention. Some as young as 12 have been held in adult prison cells within view of adult inmates.
Change the Record explains that “in just one year across Australia close to 600 children aged 10 to 13 years were locked up and thousands more were hauled through the criminal legal system. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately impacted by these laws and pushed into prison cells at even higher rates, accounting for 65 per cent of these younger children in prisons”.
Australia’s low age of minimum criminal responsibility is well out of step with international standards. Change the Record explains that “children aged 10 to 13 years old are going through significant growth and development. Treating them like criminals through early contact with the criminal justice system can lead to irreparable harm and long-term damage”.
Despite the fact that 31 United Nations member states, including Canada, France and Norway, have called on Australia to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years in line with the 2019 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommendation, Australia has not yet implemented the change. Countries that have taken this step include China, Russia, Germany, Spain, Sierra Leone, Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Rwanda.
Developing a national approach to raising the age has so far been unsuccessful. In 2018, a working group of the Council of Attorneys-General, representing Australia’s states and territories, were tasked with looking into the issue. While the working group is generally in favour of the idea, it agreed to postpone making a decision in 2021.
The new Australian Government has stated it will renew a national commitment to reconciliation by working in genuine partnership with First Nations people for better outcomes, including a constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice to Parliament. However, it has not yet made any firm commitments about raising the age of criminal responsibility.
“Wotton + Kearney has a pro bono partnership with Change the Record to support the campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Australia from 10 to 14 years of age. This partnership is a case study in how targeted pro bono assistance can make a valuable impact.”
W+K’s Raise the Age research to address obstacle to change
The Attorneys-General were concerned about the prospect of children aged 10 to 14 being left without any consequences or interventions if they commit crimes. W+K assisted Change the Record with research aimed at addressing this major obstacle to raising the age of criminal responsibility in Australia.
Mapping preventative and diversionary services currently available in every jurisdiction, the research has demonstrated the alternatives that exist between incarceration and doing nothing at all. It also shows how the cost of preventative services is a fraction of the cost of imprisoning a child (between AUS$750,000 to AUS$1m a year).
One Australian jurisdiction, the Australian Capital Territory, now has a roadmap with legislation to be introduced this year. The other jurisdictions are actively exploring the possibility, including Tasmania which announced in June 2022 that it will raise the minimum age of detention from 10 to 14. It is hoped that once a large state signs on, others will follow. Each Attorney General wants to see the preventative services in their own state or territory, so the ability for Change the Record to do this work with pro bono resources has been significant.
In addition to being used for state and territory advocacy, the research will be used by Change the Record in three specific pieces of funded work:
- A website resource for children’s advocates so they can quickly find out about each alternative service.
- An animation showing a map of Australia and where all the services are located.
- Advocacy and educational videos with stories of children who have been diverted from the criminal justice system and had their lives transformed through participation in some of the services.
The Wotton + Kearney team looks forward to seeing progress towards raising the age in every jurisdiction of Australia. The Change the Record resources, including the interactive map of alternatives to incarceration, are available now at: https://raisetheage.org.au/alternatives