Lire la version en français / Hier auf Deutsch lesen
Jailing 10-year-old children sounds extreme. That’s because it is.
Yet, the idea is all too common in Australia. Last week, the Northern Territory of Australia passed a new law lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10 years old. It’s not alone: the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia also have the age of criminal responsibility at just 10.
The Northern Territory’s new move unfortunately marks a reversal of progress, too. Just two years ago, the former government raised the age from 10 to 12.
That was in response to a 2017 Royal Commission report that found youth detention centers in Northern Territory, “were not fit for accommodating, let alone rehabilitating, children and young people.” They documented, among other things, children being “denied access to basic human needs such as water, food and the use of toilets.”
Another key point to understand is the make-up of the kids who are jailed. First Nations children are massively overrepresented in the Northern Territory criminal justice system, comprising 94 percent of children put in detention.
Now, the age of criminal responsibility in the Territory is going back from 12 to 10, but even 12 was awful. International standards recommend setting the age of criminal responsibility at no younger than 14.
This is not just a randomly chosen number. It’s based on the science of our human brains.
A child below this age is still developing the prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe – that’s the bit of the brain behind your forehead. It’s involved in cognitive processing, such as planning, strategizing, and organizing thoughts and actions.
One key thing this part of the brain does is help you understand risk and the potential consequences of your actions. It’s one of the last parts of brain to fully finish developing, not until your twenties, in fact.
It’s highly doubtful a 10-year-old child or even a 12-year-old child is capable of completely comprehending something they are doing is wrong. Making them take criminal responsibility for their actions at that age simply flies in the face of the science.
OK, you say, but even a 10-year-old child can do a lot of damage and harm through their actions, and the authorities have to do something, right?
Yes, but there are other options apart from labelling them criminals and jailing them in horrible facilities. There are many alternatives to detention and interventions in response to unlawful behavior that would be much more age-appropriate.
Instead of pursuing polices that violate children’s rights, the government of Northern Territory – and governments elsewhere in Australia – should raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 and invest more in these alternatives.
Authorities should not be jailing 10-year-old kids.
