The age of criminal responsibility will be reduced as part of a plan to rein in youth crime in the Northern Territory, but advocates say it will have the opposite effect.
The incoming Northern Territory Country Liberal Party government is being urged to consider the evidence before reintroducing jail terms for 10-year-olds. Laws to raise the age from 10 to 12 were passed in the NT Parliament in 2023, but with a landslide election win on a platform of curbing crime, the CLP has the people's mandate to change that.
She said global research shows most young people in the justice system have a neurological disability and locking them up is inhumane, ineffective and expensive. "We have the best information in the world on developmental pathways for children and young people. We know these pathways," she said. "If you intervene early, you can avoid a child ending up in the criminal justice system.
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