The age of criminal responsibility in WA is 10 years old. This means if you are 10 or older, and you commit a criminal offence, you can be charged by the police and convicted in court.
Children aged 10 and 11 will not be held criminally responsible for their actions in Victoria by the end of next year. But the Andrews government will wait until 2027 to raise the age of responsibility to 14 – as demanded by Indigenous, legal and medical groups.
The Commonwealth
Under the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) (Crimes Act), the minimum age of criminal responsibility for Commonwealth offences is 10 years of age.
There is no minimum age for criminal responsibility. Children below age 14 can only face incarceration if they are proven to have enough discernment between right and wrong. Incarceration starting at age 14.
A child aged under 10 years is considered unable to commit an offence. A child aged between 10 and 14 is presumed to be unable to commit an offence. This is unless the prosecution proves that the child is capable of forming a criminal intention.
In Australia, children under the age of 10 years cannot be charged with a criminal offence. If they are between 10 and 14 years old, the prosecution has to show that they knew what they were doing was seriously wrong for a case to continue.
Ten (10) is the minimal age for secure detention of a juvenile unless it is a capital offense.
Youth detention
The maximum sentence for juveniles aged 16 or 17 is two years. For juveniles aged 12 to 15 the maximum is one year. While in youth detention they attend school and are given extra lessons in, for instance, social skills and anger management.
This is particularly important for children between the ages of 10–14. The earlier children have contact with the criminal justice system, the more likely they are to have long term involvement in crime. Raising the age of criminal responsibility will reduce long term offending and increase community safety.
We acknowledge the Victorian Government's decision to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 in 2024, with a further move to 14 in 2027 for most offending.
In most places in Australia, a child as young as 10 can be held criminally responsible for their actions and given a custodial sentence, so for Leroy, it meant three and a half weeks at Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Perth's south. Leroy is still a minor and that first night remains fresh in his mind.
If the sex is consensual (and it must be enthusiastic consent) and the other party is also aged 16 years or over it is not against the law, although there are some exceptions: If the person is very drunk or under the influence of drugs, they may not have the capacity to consent so having sex with them is an offence.
Key points. Each night an average of about 819 children are in juvenile detention in Australia. Children as young as 10 years of age can legally be detained as that is the age of criminal responsibility across Australia. The number of unsentenced children in detention has grown each quarter since September 2020.
If you receive a conviction when you are under 18 years old, and you are not dealt with as an adult, then this conviction will be spent after 5 years of you not being in any more trouble within any Australian State or Territory. Any conviction as an adult is spent after 10 years.
The youth justice system is the set of processes and practices for managing children and young people who have committed, or allegedly committed, an offence. In Australia, it deals primarily with young people aged 10–17 at the time of the offence, although there are some variations among the states and territories.
The report, prepared with submissions by over 90 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, legal, and human rights organizations and experts, recommends that the age of criminal responsibility in Australia be raised from 10 to 14, without exception.
The Justice (Age of Criminal Responsibility) Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 will raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 years on commencement, and to 14 years by 1 July 2025.
The paper provides a number of reasons for raising the age: international comparisons; the protection of children's rights; the limited ability of the common law doctrine of doli incapax to protect young children; child developmental arguments and issues of mental illness and cognitive impairment; the over- ...
Youth crime Qld: The state's worst place for offences on a per capita basis.
Most Common Juvenile Crimes
Roughly half of all youth arrests are made on account of theft, simple assault, drug abuse, disorderly conduct, and curfew violations. OJJDP statistics show theft as the greatest cause of youth arrests.
A Minor Indictable Offence is one that is also dealt with in a Magistrates Court, however, the defendant can choose to have the matter dealt with in a higher jurisdiction. If heard in the Magistrates Court the matter is prosecuted by the Police. Examples of this type of offence include: Theft, receiving and deception.
Juvenile sentences range from several hours of community service to two weeks in a non-secure juvenile detention facility to years in a secure juvenile detention facility followed by years in a state or federal prison. Learn about juvenile detention facilities and more in our legal guide below.
The rate of young people aged 10–17 in detention in the June quarter 2022 was 2.8 per 10,000.
Both domestic and international human rights law are clear when it comes to the detention of children. The detention of a child must only be a measure of last resort. In fact, section 4AA of the Migration Act explicitly states that 'a minor shall only be detained as a measure of last resort'.
The age of criminal responsibility in WA is 10 years old. This means if you are 10 or older, and you commit a criminal offence, you can be charged by the police and convicted in court.