Against warnings from health, justice and Aboriginal groups, the NT government says it will fulfil its election promise and return the age of criminal responsibility back to 10 this year.
The new Northern Territory government will lower the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10 in its first parliament sittings.
Professor Susan Sawyer, the director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, said the law had left physicians around Australia dismayed."The further the penetration into the youth justice system, the greater the risks for young people, as we experience in terms of deaths in custody, for example.
Ms Finocchiaro did not respond to questions about which experts, if any, have backed her government's new policy, and what alternatives to prison arrested children will have.Palmerston takeaway shop manager Schyler Kennedy was among the thousands of Territorians who backed the CLP's anti-crime pitch, after her business was hit hard by crime.
"Lowering the age may be helpful, but there needs to be other things put in place to help those kids change their behaviours, and not just put a bandaid on a bigger issue.", a former prosecutor and a long-term campaigner to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, said she believed the move to lower the age in the territory set a dangerous precedent.
Northern Territory CLP Country Liberal Party NT Election Election Promise Age Of Criminal Responbility Lia Finocchiaro NT Chief Minister Crime Youth Crime Young People Shahleena Musk Crime Policy
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