Young children appearing in NSW courts are overwhelmingly from disadvantaged backgrounds and often Indigenous, new data shows, as debate swirls about raising the age of criminal responsibility.
A day after the Victorian government backflipped on a promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, NSW data showed legal proceedings were taken against 4662 people aged 10 to 13 years in 2023.
More than 40 per cent of those people were Indigenous, with children in remote and regional areas more than three times more likely to see legal proceedings instigated.
Of 171 people aged 10 to 13 in youth detention in 2023, 60 per cent were Indigenous.
Victoria's decision to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 but not to 14 as promised was labelled "treacherous" by Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Nerita Waight, who said it abandoned Indigenous children.
In NSW, 82 per cent of children aged 10 to 13 who had a court appearance had been identified in a child protection report as at risk of significant harm.
A quarter of them had been in out-of-home care, and 37 per cent had accessed specialist homelessness services.
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said the number of young people offending was small but required a delicate response.
“These children have overwhelmingly experienced significant childhood trauma and disadvantage prior to their contact with the justice system,” she said.
“The challenge is to identify an appropriate response to these offending behaviours that can keep both the child and the community safe while attempting to address the longer-term complex needs of these young people and prevent future offending.”
Of the 4662 legal proceedings, 57 per cent were finalised with via caution or warning.
The most common offences were theft (36 per cent) and violence (30 per cent).
NSW has not indicated any plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility, with Attorney-General Michael Daley indicating in November "there has been no work done on this".
He said alternative services were not in place for children aged to 10 to 13 who could no longer be incarcerated.
The United Nations recommends 14 as the age of criminal responsibility, an approach also backed by doctors and legal experts.
Children as young as 10 can be charged, convicted and imprisoned across Australia, except in the Northern Territory, which raised the age of criminal responsibility to 12 in August 2023.
The ACT passed legislation to raise the age to 14 by 2025 with some exceptions, while Tasmania has pledged to raise the minimum age of criminal detention to 14.
