A 14-year-old boy in a country town has his first gulp of beer in a street. A passing police officer charges him. How is it that the first resort in many cases in Australia is to immerse the child in the criminal justice system? What other interventions are there?
Recent research presents confronting data on the connection between kids who are not in school and criminal offending. In Victoria, for example, of the 86 Children's Court cases observed 42 per cent of the children or young offenders were not in some form of school or training at the time of offending.
This figure is startling. There is a definite link between children not being in school and criminal offending. Accordingly, having children in school is one method for early intervention and prevention
Significant effort should go into preventing a child from coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the first place. Domestic and international research has found that the further a child is immersed into the criminal justice system, the more likely they are to have increased involvement with it.
For this reason it is important that we explore other approaches to charging of children and bringing them before the courts. In my view, this is a traditional approach which has not worked. It uses criminal prosecution as the first resort and places the offender at risk of immersion into the criminal justice system.
In Australia we have been too reticent to explore other alternatives that are more likely to connect young people to the community, address problems and behaviour, and hence reduce recidivism.
In most states and territories in Australia, we have a concept doli incalpax. This is a common law presumption that until the age of 14 a child offender is not criminally capable for criminal acts unless the prosecution can provide evidence that they understood the wrongdoing.
Australian legislation governing children and youth offenders does recognise the need to take into account the vulnerability of young people, their developmental progression and the need for family and connection to schooling. It is important such legislation has the support of both government and opposition.
It is long-accepted that children have stages of development and can only respond to learning according to the stage they are at. Lacking adult experience, children may also not make logical connections between behaviour and consequences. This process can be impaired by sustained drug abuse, alcohol consumption