Australia youth justice reform: Calls to raise criminal responsibility age to 14

Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA) has urged Australian attorneys-general to implement recommendations from a recent inquiry into the nation’s youth justice and incarceration system. The organization, led by chief executive Jerry Nockles, is calling for the minimum age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 14 years across all jurisdictions and for the establishment of enforceable national minimum standards to protect vulnerable youth.

A federal Senate inquiry into the same system has highlighted a crisis characterized by high rates of re-offending and significant disadvantage among incarcerated children. The inquiry found that the current punitive approach is expensive and fails to address underlying causes such as poverty, trauma, and mental ill health. Data indicates that 65% of young people under youth justice supervision in 2022-23 had previously interacted with the child protection system.

The findings also emphasized the disproportionate over-incarceration of First Nations children and the negative impacts of detention on education, family connections, and cultural ties.