Criminal Responsibility: Older but No Wiser

Criminal Responsibility: Older but No Wiser

This paper is a rejoinder to an article entitled ‘Will Australia Raise the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility?’ and an editorial entitled ‘A New Architecture for Youth Justice’ both published in the Criminal Law Journal in 2019 and 2022 respectively, in which Professor Thomas Crofts and editor Phillip Boulten endorsed previous calls for an increase in the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) in Australia to a minimum of 12 years of age and preferably 14 years of age. By contrast, the author supports the retention of doli incapax for children aged between 10 and 13 years of age to address the small number of children who represent a threat to public safety, and argues that the neuroscience relied upon by proponents of raising the MACR is dated. The author supports the Queensland Government’s position that simply raising the MACR does not address the complex societal factors underlying offending by children. Any solution to child offending requires a recognition that without improved social justice for the most disadvantaged sections of society, raising the MACR is both pointless and dangerous.

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