tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/youth-justice-29920/articlesYouth justice – La Conversation2024-02-08T16:27:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227892024-02-08T16:27:58Z2024-02-08T16:27:58ZWhy the teenagers who murdered Brianna Ghey should have remained anonymous<p>The two teenagers convicted of the horrific murder of Brianna Ghey have received life sentences. The judge, Justice Yip, also made the decision to lift their anonymity, which is <a href="https://yjlc.uk/resources/legal-updates/changes-anonymity-children-criminal-cases">automatically applied</a> to all children (defined as those under 18) involved in criminal proceedings.</p>
<p>Their anonymity was lifted in the name of “<a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/R-v-X-and-Y-Ruling-on-reporting-restrictions.pdfhttps://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/R-v-X-and-Y-Ruling-on-reporting-restrictions.pdf">open justice</a>”, and “<a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/R-v-X-and-Y-Ruling-on-reporting-restrictions.pdf">public interest</a>”. </p>
<p>The public might well have a short-term interest in the identities of Brianna Ghey’s murderers. But “public interest” rather refers to what is in the <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/special-category-data/what-are-the-substantial-public-interest-conditions/">best interests</a> of society. As experts in criminology and youth justice, we argue that it is not in the long-term public good or the best interests of society for their identities to be revealed. </p>
<h2>Public interest or public outrage?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/R-v-X-and-Y-Ruling-on-reporting-restrictions.pdf">Justice Yip commented</a> that the public would want to know the perpetrators’ names “to understand how children could do something so dreadful”. But naming children who have committed serious crimes will not necessarily improve understandings of serious youth violence. </p>
<p>Rather, it can harden misconceptions that children who commit crimes do so because of <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/brianna-ghey-friend-killers-transgender-b2489889.html">innate evil</a>. It can raise long-discredited <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3814446/">theories of criminal “types”</a>, due to stereotyping and the over-simplification of complex situations.</p>
<p>Naming may also encourage vigilantism against the offenders or their families. It might potentially spawn further retaliatory criminal behaviour, motivated by vicarious hate and desire for retribution. Further crime is not in society’s best interest.</p>
<p>In 2009, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-38263416">two boys attacked and severely injured two other children</a> in Edlington, South Yorkshire. They were given lifelong anonymity on the grounds they would be “at serious risk of attack” if identified.</p>
<p>The well-documented murder of James Bulger by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson shows the other side of this coin. Their identities were revealed after conviction, but the ensuing <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/media_law/threats-mean-venables-new-identify-must-stay-secret/">violent threats</a> the have received have led them to be granted new identities, at significant public cost. </p>
<p>The issue is not the seriousness of the offence, which, in these cases and that of Brianna was undeniably horrific, but the possibility of long-term harm to the perpetrators and their families.</p>
<p>And a balance needs to be struck between <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/human-rights/human-rights-act/article-2-right-life">their right to life</a> and the right for children to have their <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child">best interests made paramount</a>, even in criminal proceedings and even after committing horrific crimes. </p>
<p>In 2015, a boy known as “RXG” became, at 14, the youngest person in the UK <a href="https://inforrm.org/2019/08/05/lifelong-anonymity-orders-do-they-still-work-in-the-social-media-age-faith-gordon-and-julie-doughty/">convicted of terrorist charges</a>. In 2019 he was granted lifelong anonymity on approaching 18 by the High Court. This order was not made because of concerns over imminent attack, but because identification was likely to have a <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/RXG-v-MoJ-2019-EWHC-2026-QB-Final-Judgment-as-handed-down-003.pdf">“profound impact on his psychological wellbeing”</a>. </p>
<p>The lifting of anonymity can also lead to risk for the families of the perpetrators. Justice Yip acknowledged that harassment and threats against the families of Brianna Ghey’s murderers had <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/R-v-X-and-Y-Ruling-on-reporting-restrictions.pdf">already begun</a>.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Brianna’s father <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/scarlett-jenkinson-and-eddie-ratcliffe-named-as-brianna-gheys-teenage-killers-but-victims-father-disagrees-with-judges-decision-13061367">did not want the perpetrators’ names to be released</a>. Instead, he wants his daughter to be remembered. He expressed concern that the release of the perpetrators’ names would always link them with his daughter. </p>
<h2>Rehabilitation</h2>
<p>Ultimately, a significant purpose in <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/united-nations-standard-minimum-rules-administration-juvenile">sentencing children</a> is to rehabilitate them. This comes with the understanding that <a href="https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/ndownloader/files/26748341/1">children are in a process of development</a>, with potential for change and growth. </p>
<p>However, the chances of effective rehabilitation are greatly reduced for these two children now their identities are known, not least due to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13037291/brianna-ghey-teen-killers-bus-park-murder.html">sensationalist reporting</a> and a digital footprint which remains for life. </p>
<p>The discussion here should instead focus on what is really in the public interest. Surely, this is the reduction of future offending by effective rehabilitation, avoiding the need for expensive identity-change arrangements – and keeping proper focus on the victim without forever shackling their name to the names of those who have harmed them.</p>
<p>Brianna Ghey’s murderers may, at some point in the future, be deemed safe for release. But unless their identities are changed, successful reintegration back into society would be highly doubtful, despite this being <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7565a8e5274a1baf95e408/evidence-reduce-reoffending.pdf">vital for a non-offending future</a>. Naming them will damage their likelihood of future safe release, both in terms of protecting the perpetrators and protecting society. No one benefits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Naming them links their identities with Brianna’s – and may lead to harassment against their families.Kathy Hampson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Aberystwyth UniversitySean Creaney, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Edge Hill UniversityStephen Case, Professor of Criminology, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166272023-10-31T23:47:13Z2023-10-31T23:47:13Z‘Unreasonable, unjust, oppressive’: how a police program targeted Indigenous kids<p>“Unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory in its effect on children and young people.” </p>
<p>That’s how the Law Enforcement Conduction Commission (LECC) described a police program that aims to target likely offenders before they commit crimes.</p>
<p>It’s a program that allowed police to make home visits at all hours, and stop and search people in the street. </p>
<p>Yesterday, the commission released its damning <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/news/media-release-operation-tepito-final-report">final report</a> after a five-year investigation.</p>
<p>Here’s what it found.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/too-much-money-is-spent-on-jails-and-policing-what-aboriginal-communities-told-us-about-funding-justice-reinvestment-to-keep-people-out-of-prison-200531">'Too much money is spent on jails and policing': what Aboriginal communities told us about funding justice reinvestment to keep people out of prison</a>
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<h2>Report identifies unlawful practices</h2>
<p>The program in question is the Suspect Targeted Management Plan, implemented by NSW Police.</p>
<p>It’s a pre-emptive policing program that selects and then targets children and adults who police predict may commit crimes in the future. </p>
<p>The rationale behind the policy is to deter recidivists.</p>
<p>Once placed on the plan, police “disrupt” people’s everyday lives, through questioning, stop and search, and home visits – sometimes at all hours and even multiple times a week or even a day. </p>
<p>The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission found some of this conduct to be unlawful, possibly even “serious misconduct”. </p>
<p>While the plan was introduced in 2000, the then secret “black list” only came to public attention in 2017 with my <a href="https://piac.asn.au/2017/10/25/policing-young-people-in-nsw-a-study-of-the-suspect-targeting-management-plan/">research</a> (coauthored with Camilla Pandolfini), in partnership with Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Youth Justice Coalition. </p>
<p>The commission agreed with our recommendation that there were grounds to investigate the police for potential agency maladministration. </p>
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<p>The commission’s investigation, called “Operation Tepito”, has been ongoing since 2018. </p>
<p>Its <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/publications/operation-tepito-interim-report-january-2020.pdf">interim 2020 report</a> was scathing of police.</p>
<p>It recommended further reform of the revised management plan through new policy guidelines and training. </p>
<p>The commission urged police to engage with young people with “positive interactions” and reduce coercive ones. </p>
<p>The final report reviewed the operation of the plan for children between November 2020 and February 2022.</p>
<p>The commission concluded that police use of the management plan was an “<a href="https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2016-061#sec.11">agency maladministration</a>” but did not make formal findings. This is because NSW Police abandoned the plan before the report was released. </p>
<h2>First Nations children disproportionately targeted</h2>
<p>Of the recommendations the commission made in 2020, NSW Police <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/news/media-release-operation-tepito-final-report">failed to successfully implement</a> any of them. </p>
<p>Police overwhelmingly still subjected young people to intrusive, disruptive strategies. Some of these, such as home visits and searches, were unlawful. </p>
<p>There was <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/news/media-release-operation-tepito-final-report">little evidence</a> of “positive interactions”, nor of support referrals.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nts-tough-on-crime-approach-wont-reduce-youth-offending-this-is-what-we-know-works-160361">The NT's tough-on-crime approach won't reduce youth offending. This is what we know works</a>
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<p>First Nations young people were disproportionately targeted. </p>
<p>In 2022, First Nations people made up 48% of all young people on the plan.</p>
<p>This was an increase on the 42% reported in the 2020 interim report. </p>
<p>Crucially, the commission found that:</p>
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<p>The NSW Police Force did not undertake any analysis to try to determine the reasons for this and did not take steps to reduce this over-representation.</p>
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<p>First Nations young people are <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003115243/conflict-politics-crime-chris-cunneen">overpoliced, overcharged and overincarcerated</a>.</p>
<p>If you then use the same data to decide who is “risky” and deserving of intensified police harassment, it only reinforces the cycle of criminalisation. </p>
<p>The Commission also found other administrative issues, including:</p>
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<li><p>varied quality in intelligence assessments</p></li>
<li><p>unclear justifications for putting people on the plan</p></li>
<li><p>inflation of how some scores were calculated</p></li>
<li><p>poor record-keeping</p></li>
<li><p>inadequate consideration of complex needs or the alternatives to placing a young person on the Suspect Targeting Management Plan.</p></li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/raising-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-is-only-a-first-step-first-nations-kids-need-cultural-solutions-186201">Raising the age of criminal responsibility is only a first step. First Nations kids need cultural solutions</a>
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<h2>A plan at odds with Closing the Gap</h2>
<p>The fact NSW Police didn’t implement any of the 2020 recommendations or reduce the over-representation shows the plan was never safe for First Nations young people in the first place.</p>
<p>Indeed, the management plan did precisely what it was designed to do: incapacitate and disrupt. </p>
<p>No amount of training or improvements to policy could remedy the extensive harms for First Nations young people put on the plan. </p>
<p>It was fundamentally a punitive surveillance approach, which made police the first responders for First Nations young people.</p>
<p>Aboriginal children need <a href="https://earlytraumagrief.anu.edu.au/files/ctg-rs21.pdf">culturally appropriate, therapeutic, trauma-informed services</a> run by Aboriginal community-controlled organisations. </p>
<p>They also need <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362480615625763">safe distance</a> from police. </p>
<p>The Suspect Targeting Management Plan was always at odds with the NSW government’s commitment to divert First Nations people from the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>In its Closing the Gap <a href="https://www.aboriginalaffairs.nsw.gov.au/closingthegap/nsw-implementation-plan/2022-24-implementation-plan/">Implementation Plan</a>, all early interventions to support young people need to be community designed and driven. </p>
<p>There should also be health, housing and education support.</p>
<h2>A community development approach</h2>
<p>NSW Police has dropped the Suspect Targeting Management Plan for people under 18 and will soon scrap it entirely.</p>
<p>Police are now developing a replacement approach. Will they take the lead from communities? </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/walgett-partnership/about-us">Yuwaya Ngarra-li</a> community-led partnership in Walgett is one example of how holistic diversion programs can work.</p>
<p>Another is <a href="https://www.justreinvest.org.au">Just Reinvest</a> in Bourke, Kempsey and Moree.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/jumbunna-institute-indigenous-education-and-research/our-research/indigenous-law-and-justice-hub/self-determination-and-criminal-justice">UTS Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education</a> has developed ideas around Aboriginal self-determination in youth justice that could shape guiding principles. </p>
<p>Police are the wrong people for providing Indigenous young people with non-coercive, therapeutic support.</p>
<p>Community alternatives to state policing are real and powerful.</p>
<p><em>Correction: This article has been amended to reflect that the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission did not make formal findings of agency maladministration because NSW Police abandoned the Suspect Targeted Management Plan for children before the report was released. The article previously did not include this context.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216627/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vicki Sentas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has handed down a damning report into an unlawful policing strategy. It’s the latest example of First Nations children being over-policed.Vicki Sentas, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Law, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110462023-08-30T04:19:59Z2023-08-30T04:19:59ZToo many young people who’ve been in detention die prematurely. They deserve better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544694/original/file-20230825-25-a34sg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C997%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hand-jail-147711227">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Young people in contact with the criminal justice system – be it under community-based orders or in youth detention – are among the <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(19)30217-8/fulltext">most marginalised</a> in our society. And the health and health-care disadvantage faced by these young people may be evident for years.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(23)00144-5/fulltext">Our research</a> found high levels of largely-preventable diseases and avoidable premature deaths for these young people in Australia. This indicates inadequate health care both in youth detention and in the community.</p>
<p>It’s time we provided health care for people in youth detention that’s culturally safe and equivalent to what’s available in the community. That includes access to Australia’s so-called universal health-care scheme, Medicare. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/locking-up-kids-damages-their-mental-health-and-sets-them-up-for-more-disadvantage-is-this-what-we-want-117674">Locking up kids damages their mental health and sets them up for more disadvantage. Is this what we want?</a>
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<h2>Children as young as 10</h2>
<p>Australian courts can sentence children as young as ten who are convicted of a criminal offence to a community-based order, or to youth detention. </p>
<p>During the 2021-22 financial year, <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/3fe01ba6-3917-41fc-a908-39290f9f4b55/aihw-juv-140.pdf.aspx?inline=true">4,350 young people</a> aged ten to 18 were detained at some point, typically for eight days or less.</p>
<p>Almost 50% of young people under youth justice supervision <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/3fe01ba6-3917-41fc-a908-39290f9f4b55/aihw-juv-140.pdf.aspx?inline=true">are Indigenous</a>, and they are 24 times more likely than non-Indigenous young people to go into youth detention.</p>
<p>Young people in detention commonly have <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(19)30217-8/fulltext">very poor health</a>. This includes high rates of one or more physical and mental health problems, cognitive and neurodevelopmental disabilities, and substance dependence. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-social-determinants-of-justice-8-factors-that-increase-your-risk-of-imprisonment-203661">The social determinants of justice: 8 factors that increase your risk of imprisonment</a>
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<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>In the nearly 25 years of data covered in our study, <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(23)00144-5/fulltext">we found</a> young people with a history of contact with the youth justice system died at a rate more than four times higher than those of the same age and sex in the general Australian population.</p>
<p>We found those most at risk of dying prematurely were Indigenous children, males, and those whose first contact with the youth justice system was before they were 14 years old.</p>
<p>Until now, there’s been a remarkable lack of evidence on the burden of noncommunicable diseases, such as cancers and cardiovascular diseases, among young people during and after contact with the youth justice system. However, we found that compared with their peers, these young people have nearly double the rate of dying from such diseases.</p>
<p>For young Indigenous males, cardiovascular and digestive diseases, including chronic liver diseases, were particularly prominent (and largely preventable) causes of death.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-people-in-the-nt-receive-just-16-of-the-medicare-funding-of-an-average-australian-183210">First Nations people in the NT receive just 16% of the Medicare funding of an average Australian</a>
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<h2>What we need</h2>
<p>Our findings highlight the need for young people involved with the justice system to access high-quality and holistic health care that’s age- and culturally appropriate. This is essential to identify and manage their complex health conditions, both during periods of supervision and – critically – after return to the community. </p>
<p>Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations are <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-020-09943-4">well placed</a> to provide this and to support continuity of care as these children transition in and out of detention.</p>
<p>But the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction where they are funded to provide health care in youth detention.</p>
<p>Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations are unable to access Commonwealth funding to support health care in detention elsewhere.</p>
<p>Discriminatory exclusion from access to Medicare, which typically prevents access to Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations in detention, is an example of the “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00243-9/fulltext">inverse care law</a>”. This is when those most in need of high-quality health care are least likely to receive it.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-prison-health-care-system-should-match-community-health-care-180558">Victoria’s prison health care system should match community health care</a>
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<h2>Progress has been slow so far</h2>
<p>Health-care reform in youth justice is clearly and urgently required, but progress has been slow. One reason is the lack of independent oversight of these systems. </p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/industry-and-agency-oversight/monitoring-places-of-detention-opcat">ratifying</a> the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in 2017, Australia has <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-twice-extended-deadline-for-torture-prevention-is-today-but-weve-missed-it-again-197793">yet to establish</a> the mechanisms required under this protocol to permit independent scrutiny of places of detention. </p>
<p>As a priority, we need to meet our international obligations – through both permitting unfettered access to all youth detention centres and investing appropriately in <a href="https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/industry-and-agency-oversight/monitoring-places-of-detention-opcat">independent scrutiny</a> – in every state and territory.</p>
<p>Australia is also lagging behind in routine monitoring of health and health care in youth detention. More than five years ago, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/health-justice-involved-young-people-2016-17/summary">recommended</a> producing regular reports on health care in youth justice settings. But there is still no Commonwealth or state/territory funding or mechanism for this critical monitoring.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-twice-extended-deadline-for-torture-prevention-is-today-but-weve-missed-it-again-197793">Australia's twice extended deadline for torture prevention is today, but we've missed it again</a>
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<h2>Why we need to lift our game</h2>
<p>Improving the health of this marginalised group is important to improving health equity, closing the gap, and preventing the tragic loss of young lives. </p>
<p>Australia can no longer ignore that some of our most disadvantaged children are dying at a much faster rate than expected, and from causes that are largely preventable. Doing so would amplify cycles of racism and social exclusion. </p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.unicef.org.au/united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child">UN Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> all children, including those in contact with the youth justice system, have the right to the highest attainable standard of health. We owe it to them to make this a reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Calais Ferreira receives funding from Suicide Prevention Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Kinner receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Susan Sawyer is a member of the Youth Justice Act Independent Expert Group for the Victorian Government, Department of Justice and Community Safety.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children as young as ten don’t have access to Medicare if detained. And they’re dying of largely preventable diseases.Lucas Calais Ferreira, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneAlex Brown, Professor of Indigenous Genomics, Australian National UniversityStuart Kinner, Professor of Health Equity, Curtin UniversitySusan M Sawyer, Professor of Adolescent Health The University of Melbourne; Director, Royal Children's Hospital Centre for Adolescent Health, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1887762022-11-24T07:10:25Z2022-11-24T07:10:25ZAutism and ADHD: the youth justice system is harming neurodivergent children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495086/original/file-20221114-11-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5982%2C2559&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-preteen-boy-sitting-alone-chair-1714946425">SewCream/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Neurodivergent children are disproportionately represented in the youth justice system in England. This includes those with conditions including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and speech, language and communication needs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/PSJ%20226%20July%202016.pdf">Research across a range of countries suggests</a> that 15% of young people in custody are autistic, as opposed to between 0.6% and 1.2% in the general population. This research found that between 60% and 90% of young people in custody met the diagnostic criteria for communication disorders. </p>
<p>What’s more, many children in the youth justice system <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281287992_Neurodisability_in_the_youth_justice_system_recognising_and_responding_to_the_criminalisation_of_neurodevelopmental_impairment">will not have been assessed</a> and diagnosed, or may not meet the criteria for a clinical diagnosis. </p>
<h2>A stressful environment</h2>
<p>As part of my research, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327">I carried out interviews</a> with 19 neurodivergent children who were or had recently been in a young offenders institution in England. The stressful, loud, aggressive, chaotic and harmful environment of custody triggered neurodivergent children. It leads to behaviour which could result in them being labelled as problematic by staff. My research suggests that the youth justice system, and specifically custody, is deeply harmful for neurodivergent children.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.autism.org.uk/">National Autistic Society</a> report on the <a href="https://nas.chorus.thirdlight.com/link/n4bhhjjwhbxk-as0nu1/@/preview/1?o">experiences of autistic teenagers</a> in the youth justice system in England has concluded that system-wide change is needed to address how autistic young people enter and are treated in the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>The report found that at police stations, 46% of families said they were not provided with the <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.5042/tldr.2010.0403/full/html">appropriate adult</a> they were entitled to to advise and advocate for them as needed. They thought the communication style during police interview was <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1525740114520962">challenging</a>, often because clear language was not used and extra time was not given to process information.</p>
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<p>Families also reported that in court, they often did not receive adjustments like being given extra time to process information. <a href="https://www.choiceforum.org/docs/noonereport.pdf">Research suggests</a> that <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6417/1ad9757e64c10c065205d1e885e24fb443a7.pdf">autistic young people</a> may have reduced understanding of court processes, why they are in court, or the implications of legal decisions.</p>
<p>Some children may be given community sentences, which involves being supervised in the community by a member of the youth justice team for a period of time. They are <a href="https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CBT-Technical-Report-.pdf">often required</a> to take part in therapy focused on cognitive behavioural techniques (CBT) to address “offending behaviour”. </p>
<h2>Inappropriate methods</h2>
<p>This approach may well <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/tandi435.pdf">be inappropriate</a> for many neurodivergent children. CBT requires these children to understand what their thoughts and feelings were before they became involved in a behaviour, and to be able to discuss these feelings with a youth justice worker. It relies on a level of language competence to pinpoint how thoughts and feelings may have contributed to an act. This may not be possible for a neurodivergent child. </p>
<p>For some children, their interaction with the youth justice system leads to imprisonment. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327">My research</a> and <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/publications/neurodiversity-in-the-criminal-justice-system/">research by others</a> suggests that busy and noisy buildings, cell sharing and changes to daily routine will be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327#bib19">particularly distressing</a> and harmful for neurodiverse child prisoners. </p>
<p>Neurodivergent young people <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/old_files/Documents/No%20One%20Knows%20report-2.pdf">may also</a> be <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319956315_Improving_the_management_of_prisoners_with_autistic_spectrum_disorders_ASD">more likely to</a> be restrained, isolated, and segregated, such as being left alone in their cells. I found that this has a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327">negative impact</a> on some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/SC-11-2020-0040">children’s mental health</a>, leading to incidents of self-harm.</p>
<p>The isolation, exclusion, and stigmatisation of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352464219304018">neurodivergent children</a> permeates the youth justice system. A 2019 <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3899429?ln=en#record-files-collapse-header">general comment</a> from the UN committee on the rights of the child stated that neurodivergent children “should not be in the child justice system at all”.</p>
<h2>Understanding triggers</h2>
<p>Front line staff, including police, prison officers, social workers and youth justice workers lack knowledge about how to identify and work effectively with neurodivergent children. Staff need to be trained on how to communicate appropriately with neurodivergent children. This includes understanding how a child’s environment could be stressful and trigger challenging behaviours, and how to ensure that they are worked with and valued as an individual.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327">in my research</a>, I found that children with ADHD were often punished in custody for “disruptive behaviour”. The disruptive behaviour they displayed, though, was in many cases typical behaviour for people with ADHD when in a stressful environment such as custody. They <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SC-11-2020-0040/full/html">repeatedly pressed</a> the buzzer on their cell door, had verbal altercations with other children or staff, or refused to return to their cell when instructed to do so.</p>
<p>There is also currently insufficient screening of children for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327#bib19">neurodivergent conditions</a>. Having routine screening as part of their entry into the youth justice system would ensure that children are identified early on and changes can be made to ensure their needs are met. As it stands, the youth justice system is woefully failing neurodivergent children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne-Marie Day does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Better screening when young people enter the youth justice system would help identify those who are neurodivergent.Anne-Marie Day, Criminology Lecturer, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1889692022-10-27T00:30:18Z2022-10-27T00:30:18Z10 is too young to be in court – NZ should raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490788/original/file-20221020-19-lw047u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5391%2C3581&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent news that <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/10/20/thousands-of-charges-laid-against-youth-offenders-over-retail-crimes/">thousands of charges</a> have been filed in the Waikato and Auckland youth courts in the past nine months once again put a spotlight on youth crime and our responses to it. </p>
<p>This comes not long after a recent rise in ram raids and smash-and-grab burglaries by young offenders was <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/473706/lack-of-consequences-leading-to-a-tsunami-of-youth-crime-says-national">called a “tsunami”</a> of youth crime by the National Party police spokesperson.</p>
<p>And despite evidence suggesting the number of young people in court had <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/despite-ram-raid-rhetoric-youth-crime-is-dropping-year-on-year/ZDXA5VF73ZJIR4QMBMPUT4LAJE/">dropped in the year to June 30</a>, opposition <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/national-leader-christopher-luxon-calls-for-greater-accountability-for-persistent-youth-offenders-amid-a-crime-spree/DN4WLS3MHR44P3KMIEGEP5ZB6M/">calls for a crackdown</a> may well mean it becomes an issue at next year’s general election.</p>
<p>But just how the justice system should deal with children and teenagers remains a complex question – especially when it comes to the minimum age of criminal responsibility. </p>
<p>In fact, New Zealand is among a number of countries criticised by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child for retaining an unacceptably low age of criminal responsibility. </p>
<p>It’s now more than 60 years since the Crimes Act set the age at <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0043/latest/DLM328215.html">ten years</a>. Children younger than that, the law says, are incapable of forming criminal intent. Since that law was written, we have learned a lot more about the <a href="https://dpmc.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2021-10/pmcsa-Its-never-too-early-Discussion-paper-on-preventing-youth-offending-in-NZ.pdf">brain development</a> of children and adolescents, and how their decision-making abilities differ from adults. </p>
<p>Given this also affects their ability to comprehend the court process itself, and therefore their right to a fair trial, is it time New Zealand revisited the minimum age and the reasons for raising it?</p>
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<h2>New Zealand out of step</h2>
<p>Even politicians calling for a tougher approach to youth crime seem to agree that keeping children out of the criminal justice system should be a priority, particularly for young and first-time offenders. </p>
<p>Currently, children aged <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0043/latest/DLM328217.html">over ten but under 14</a> are subject to the adult criminal justice system. But they may avoid conviction if it can be shown they didn’t know their actions were wrong or illegal. </p>
<p>At the same time, however, the Oranga Tamariki Act allows for children aged ten to 13 years to be charged with <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1989/0024/latest/DLM153418.html?search=sw_096be8ed81c5875a_272_25_se&p=1&sr=3">serious offences</a> such as murder or manslaughter.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sam-uffindell-was-lucky-to-avoid-nzs-criminal-justice-system-as-a-schoolboy-but-it-was-the-right-outcome-188531">Sam Uffindell was lucky to avoid NZ’s criminal justice system as a schoolboy – but it was the right outcome</a>
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<p>This puts New Zealand alongside Australia and other <a href="https://archive.crin.org/en/home/ages/oceania.html">Pacific nations</a> where the minimum age of criminal responsibility is ten (with the exception of Papua New Guinea and Tonga where it is seven). And despite <a href="https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/it-is-high-time-we-increased-the-minimum-age-of-criminal-responsibility">calls for change</a>, England, Wales and Northern Ireland also still recognise a minimum age of ten. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/may/07/scotland-raises-age-of-criminal-responsibility-from-8-to-12">Scotland</a> raised its age of criminal responsibility from eight to 12 in 2019. Elsewhere it is <a href="https://www.oecd.org/els/family/PF_1_8_Age_threshold_Childhood_to_Adulthood.pdf">higher</a>: 14 in Germany, 15 in Sweden, 16 in Portugal and 18 in Luxembourg.</p>
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<h2>Hints of change</h2>
<p>International law only goes so far when it comes to establishing common ground. While the UN’s <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> requires countries to establish a separate justice system for children with a minimum age of criminal responsibility, it doesn’t specify an age. </p>
<p>The Committee on the Rights of the Child has sought to fill that gap. <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-comment-no-24-2019-childrens-rights-child">Responding</a> to changing trends driven by developments in neuroscience and child development, in 2019 it encouraged states to raise their minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 (the commonest age internationally at that time).</p>
<p>For nearly 20 years, New Zealand has resisted the committee’s call and kept the minimum age at ten. It has offered a range of justifications, including wanting to focus on more effective responses to children’s offending. </p>
<p>However, in 2021 New Zealand indicated <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2fNZL%2f6&Lang=en">some movement</a>, advising the committee that it was monitoring the progress of a <a href="https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/resources/submissions/council-of-attorneys-general-age-of-criminal-responsibility-working-group-review">working group</a> set up to review the law in Australia. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-90-of-year-10-teachers-dont-know-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-in-australia-132855">More than 90% of Year 10 teachers don't know the age of criminal responsibility in Australia</a>
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<h2>Keeping children out of court</h2>
<p>Ideas about a minimum age of criminal responsibility have been evolving since at least the 18th century, when it was decided that, in order to be convicted, children aged between seven and 14 had to understand what they’d done and that it was wrong. </p>
<p>This was reflected in New Zealand’s Criminal Code Act of 1893 and Crimes Act of 1908, and has shifted only by degrees since then.</p>
<p>But while public safety is a legitimate aim of the justice system, including the child justice system, raising the minimum age doesn’t mean children will escape any consequences for their actions. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sending-teens-to-maximum-security-prisons-shows-australia-needs-to-raise-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-187768">Sending teens to maximum security prisons shows Australia needs to raise the age of criminal responsibility</a>
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<p>With more countries now raising their ages of minimum criminal responsibility, New Zealand could comfortably raise its own threshold to 12, or even 14. Given that most youth offending is not serious, and is therefore dealt with outside the criminal justice system, the wider societal impact may not be significant. </p>
<p>But it would reduce the risk of ten-year-olds who have not committed a serious crime ending up in the criminal justice system. This is not to say they would not face any consequences for their actions. Rather, the consequences might be more effective in improving their chances later in life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Breen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In New Zealand, you can be considered capable of criminal intent from the age of ten. But this is young by international standards, and many believe reform is overdue.Claire Breen, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1603612021-05-10T19:51:42Z2021-05-10T19:51:42ZThe NT’s tough-on-crime approach won’t reduce youth offending. This is what we know works<p>Last week the Northern Territory (NT) government proposed <a href="https://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/34423">legislative changes</a> to youth justice, including tightening access to bail and diversion, particularly for re-offenders.</p>
<p>We expect the legislation could go through as early as today. But this tough-on-crime approach runs contrary to what we know works to reduce youth offending and keep children healthy.</p>
<p>Nine national and local health organisations have written an <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/11WlbPRgXertvIzGk0UP-_wtu0Q-j_vxb/view">open letter</a> to NT government ministers warning the reforms “pose a significant threat to the health and wellbeing of an already vulnerable cohort of young people”.</p>
<p>Evidence-based solutions recognise youth crime is not solely a justice issue: it’s also health and disability issue. If we want to reduce youth offending, there are better alternatives to this punitive approach.</p>
<h2>The proposed changes are regressive</h2>
<p>If passed, the legislation would reverse changes implemented following the <a href="https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/royal-commission-detention-and-protection-children-northern-territory">Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children in the Northern Territory</a>, particularly around bail.</p>
<p>The presumption of bail will be removed for an expanded list of offences, including unlawful entry and assault of a worker (such as a support worker). There will be automatic revocation of bail for breaches, such as breaking curfew and re-offending. Police will also be able to apply electronic monitoring to children alleged to have committed a crime.</p>
<p>This means, for example, a child running late for curfew, or who forgot to charge an electronic monitoring device, could automatically lose bail.</p>
<p>Diversion, which uses community programs instead of traditional criminal justice mechanisms, will be available to a young person only once (previously, this could be used twice).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-indigenous-kids-in-detention-in-the-nt-in-the-first-place-63257">Why are so many Indigenous kids in detention in the NT in the first place?</a>
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<p>Importantly, these changes will increase the number of youth in detention in the NT. The average rate of young people aged 10-17 in detention in the NT is <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-detention-population-in-australia-2020/contents/summary">7.9 per 10,000</a> — already more than three times the national average. </p>
<p>Well over <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-detention-population-in-australia-2020/contents/data-visualisation/trends-in-the-youth-detention">90% of young people</a> in detention in the NT are Indigenous Australians.</p>
<h2>Punishment and deterrence are not effective</h2>
<p>Evidence tells us <a href="https://www.youthcourt.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/Youth-Court-10-suggested-characteristics.pdf">solely punitive responses</a> in youth justice are largely ineffective in preventing repeat offending. Military-style boot camps and “scared straight” programs (where, for example, youth are taken to prisons to see the possible consequences of their behaviour) don’t work.</p>
<p>Even short periods of detention, with the associated separation from culture and community, can affect a child’s psychological and physical well-being and compromise cognitive development.</p>
<p>Compounding the problem, detention with other young people can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2747364/">exacerbate bad behaviour</a>. </p>
<p>Figures provided to us by the NT government show 77% of young people released from detention return within 12 months, but 64% of those who complete a diversion program do not reoffend in the same timeframe.</p>
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<img alt="A teenage boy leans against a fence, appearing despondent." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399653/original/file-20210510-13-hzepzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399653/original/file-20210510-13-hzepzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399653/original/file-20210510-13-hzepzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399653/original/file-20210510-13-hzepzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399653/original/file-20210510-13-hzepzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399653/original/file-20210510-13-hzepzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399653/original/file-20210510-13-hzepzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Young people released from detention often reoffend.</span>
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<h2>Trauma and neurodevelopmental disability are common</h2>
<p>Adolescence is a period of significant development, with changes in brain structure and function. A growing body of evidence shows many young people in the justice system have experienced <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0093854812436957">significant interruptions</a> to healthy brain development. </p>
<p>Childhood abuse or neglect, exposure to domestic violence, or parental mental illness, can induce “<a href="https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/toxic-stress/">toxic stress</a>”. This affects the development of skills such as emotional regulation, reward-seeking, executive function (including flexible thinking and self-control) and threat perception. </p>
<p>Children exposed to multiple stressors are <a href="https://www.basw.co.uk/resources/adverse-childhood-experiences-and-their-impact-health-harming-behaviours-welsh-adult#:%7E:text=Findings%20show%20that%20ACEs%20have,use%2C%20smoking%2C%20poor%20diets%20and">20 times more likely</a> to be imprisoned in their lifetime. Mental illness and substance use are also <a href="https://www.justicehealth.nsw.gov.au/publications/2015YPICHSReportwebreadyversion.PDF">common issues</a> for young offenders in Australia.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-every-young-person-in-wa-detention-has-a-severe-brain-impairment-90695">Almost every young person in WA detention has a severe brain impairment</a>
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<p>Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is brain damage caused by exposure to alcohol before birth. A <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/2/e019605">study</a> from the Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Western Australia found <a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-every-young-person-in-wa-detention-has-a-severe-brain-impairment-90695?">36% of 99 young people</a> evaluated had FASD.</p>
<p>Some 89% of all participants had severe impairment in at least one area, such as academic achievement, attention, or language. As care providers at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, we see this frequently in the young people we meet.</p>
<p>As a result of such trauma and disability, young people often have a restricted range of responses to emotional and stressful situations. They’re more likely to resort to aggression, violence, and impulsive behaviour. </p>
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<img alt="Several young people take part in a group session." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399658/original/file-20210510-23-1f258o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399658/original/file-20210510-23-1f258o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399658/original/file-20210510-23-1f258o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399658/original/file-20210510-23-1f258o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399658/original/file-20210510-23-1f258o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399658/original/file-20210510-23-1f258o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399658/original/file-20210510-23-1f258o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diversion involves rehabilitating youth in the community.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what works?</h2>
<p>We need effective interventions that recognise the developmental stage of adolescence and respond to individual needs. </p>
<p>First, the system needs to promote resolution outside a formal criminal justice process. One method is Family Group Conferences, which have been successful in <a href="https://www.youthcourt.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/Youth-Court-10-suggested-characteristics.pdf">New Zealand</a>. </p>
<p>The conferences bring together the offender, their family, the victim, police and others to discuss and make recommendations for the young person. They’re more likely to be culturally appropriate and empower families and communities, and can also benefit the victim. The Australian Law Reform Commission has <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/seen-and-heard-priority-for-children-in-the-legal-process-alrc-report-84/18-childrens-involvement-in-criminal-justice-processes/diversion/">recommended</a> expanding the use of this program in Australia.</p>
<p>Second, we need an <a href="https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/127234/AllardPUB3.pdf?sequence=1">evidence-based</a>, therapeutic approach to rehabilitation that recognises an individual offender’s risk factors and disability. This may mean interventions at home and school, supporting peer relationships or reducing substance use. These approaches <a href="https://www.youthcourt.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/Youth-Court-10-suggested-characteristics.pdf">are targeted</a> at the child’s developmental level and address how they respond to challenges. </p>
<p>One such program is the <a href="https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/suicide-prevention-activities-evaluation%7EAppendices%7Eappendixa%7Eproject49">Yiriman Project</a>, which operates in the Kimberley. It uses on-country trips focused on cultural pride, safety, and regeneration for Indigenous young people. </p>
<p>In Spain, the <a href="https://ddhs.org.au/sites/default/files/media-library/documents/Blueprint%20for%20Change%20-%20Diagrama%20Foundation%20Report%20FINAL.pdf">Diagrama Foundation</a> model, which provides a range of rehabilitative programs in detention, has seen repeat offending fall as low as 14%.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/don-dale-royal-commission-demands-sweeping-change-is-there-political-will-to-make-it-happen-86223">Don Dale royal commission demands sweeping change – is there political will to make it happen?</a>
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<p>Punitive approaches do not address the issues driving bad behaviour.
We need to see prompt assessment of all young offenders for FASD and other disabilities, ideally as soon as they enter the youth justice system. We also need to expand best-practice diversion programs. These were key findings from a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/FetalAlcoholSpectrumDi/Report">recent senate inquiry</a> into FASD and will allow responses to improve skills many of us take for granted, such as emotional regulation, developing strong relationships, and an ability to organise daily tasks.</p>
<p>The NT government’s regressive policies will not reduce youth crime. And instead of addressing the poor health of most youth offenders, they will expose some of the most vulnerable and marginalised young people in our society to further trauma and disadvantage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Do we want to punish some of the most vulnerable young people in the community, or do we want to reduce re-offending? The Northern Territory’s proposed youth justice reforms suggest the former.Nicholas Fancourt, Paediatrician & Research Fellow, Menzies School of Health ResearchOlga Havnen, CEO of Danila Dilba Health Service, Indigenous KnowledgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1427792020-08-05T10:59:21Z2020-08-05T10:59:21ZKnife crime: why young people need to get a say in their rehabilitation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351297/original/file-20200805-16-1ti4col.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5750%2C3821&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Knife crime is at record levels across the UK.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-teenage-boy-urban-gang-holding-1433575952">SpeedKingz/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Knife crime hit a record high in England and Wales before the COVID-19 lockdown came into place – with police reporting <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2020">46,265 cases</a> for the year to March. The recent report by the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2020">Office for National Statistics</a> (ONS) said this was 51% higher compared to when the data was first collected in 2011. </p>
<p>During <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/13/falls-in-gun-and-knife-a-silver-lining-to-pandemic-says-met-chief">lockdown</a>, knife and gun crime dropped considerably, but these figures have now begun to increase with restrictions easing. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2019-03-08/call-for-harsh-punishments-for-carrying-knives-as-stabbings-toll-rises/">Tougher sentences</a> are often touted as the answer to <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/ann-widdecombe/940876/london-stabbing-need-determined-policing-stop-and-search-ann-widdecombe">knife crime</a>. There also seems to be the belief that people who carry out such crimes have <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/crsw/2014/00000002/00000003/art00003">forfeited</a> their right to <a href="https://www.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/story/12283/">political and public empathy</a>.</p>
<p>The idea that young people should get a say in their punishment then, might also seem far fetched to some. But <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">every young person has a right</a> to be <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Youth-Justice-A-Critical-Introduction-1st-Edition/Case/p/book/9781138233256">meaningfully involved</a> in their own rehabilitation.
And giving them a say on how the process works and how it’s carried out <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13575279.2018.1521381">is crucial</a>. Not least because <a href="https://www.cycj.org.uk/resource/inclusive-justice-co-producing-change/">it can</a> help to <a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/young-peoples-views-are-a-vital-to-solving-the-knife-crime-crisis/">reduce the likelihood</a> they will carry or use a knife as a weapon. </p>
<h2>Current situation</h2>
<p>As it stands, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/youth-offending-team">youth offending teams</a> work with young people involved in, or on the cusp of, knife-related crime, often ordered by the courts. These teams do in-depth assessments to flag up what’s triggering young people’s involvement in knife crime. And they’ll also look at issues like the impact of <a href="https://www.cypnow.co.uk/features/article/childhood-trauma-and-offending">childhood trauma on thinking</a> and behaviour. </p>
<p>These teams aim to work in a collaborative way with young people to help them change their behaviour. In theory, this would see young people taking on responsibility for their learning and making decisions on what topics to cover, or acting as spokesperson for the group in feedback forums with their youth offending teams. But in reality, many young people don’t really engage or involve themselves with the process of rehabilitation. They just see is as “something to get through” – as <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SC-01-2020-0002/full/html">recent research</a> shows.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sculpture made of 100,000 confiscated knives." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349695/original/file-20200727-29-1qc50pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349695/original/file-20200727-29-1qc50pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349695/original/file-20200727-29-1qc50pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349695/original/file-20200727-29-1qc50pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349695/original/file-20200727-29-1qc50pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349695/original/file-20200727-29-1qc50pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349695/original/file-20200727-29-1qc50pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Knife Angel’ sculpture on display at Coventry Cathedral, made up of the UK police forces confiscated knives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/coventry-west-midlandsuk-march-15-2019-1351054259">NSingh Photography/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SC-01-2020-0002/full/html">The study</a>, which involved 15 months of fieldwork between 2016-2017 with a youth offending team in England, looked at the extent of young people’s participation in the rehabilitation process. </p>
<p>It found that some of the young people simply aimed to attend meetings, putting as little as possible into the process. They were seemingly compliant and responsive to demands with little resistance but were actually just going through the motions.</p>
<h2>‘Game playing’</h2>
<p>One support worker described how some young people seemed insincere – giving a false impression they were content with their <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/disguised-compliance-or-undisguised-nonsense(bf4b15d6-9fc4-4594-bf80-9e9e672ea918).html.">specified objectives</a> set by the youth offending team – requiring them to complete worksheets or anger management courses.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SC-01-2020-0002/full/html">Another support worker</a> in the study, Mason, queried whether staff should be digging beneath the surface – especially with young people who appear quietly compliant. </p>
<p>He explained how he felt concerned the “game playing element” of the system discouraged young people from properly engaging in supervision meetings:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do you see that strategising – is that what we count as good? Or are the ones who chafe against this…is that actually more meaningful? [Is] their participation, more meaningful?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jackson, one of the youth offending team managers, explained how a lot of young people just want to complete what’s required of them without any complications: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They see it as a punishment. They see us as part of the…well, and we are, the officers of the court. And a voice of authority. And they wanna get through it for six months, for nine months, for twelve months. They don’t think of participation in a way that, you know…that a practitioner might.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, across the study, young people under youth justice supervision generally didn’t want to question those in authority because of fears this could lead to a delay in completing their court order. </p>
<p>The study also revealed that many young people felt decisions about their rehabilitation were largely outside their control – as Tommy explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t think it’s up to me to say that, is it? I don’t think…I get a say in what the [youth offending team], do I?.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A collaborative approach</h2>
<p>Ultimately, young people’s voices must not be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13575279.2018.1521381">ignored</a> in this process – they have a right to a say about their rehabilitation. But young people need more reassurances to know they are entitled to express their views and that their perspectives will be taken seriously – and not used against them. </p>
<p>Many of the staff in the youth offending team recognised that empathy and trust plays a pivotal role in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342667158_Social_work_and_youth_justice">bolstering young people’s participation</a>. And <a href="http://www.promise.manchester.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Cluster-1-analysis-Final-individual-report.pdf">research</a> showing the transformative power of mutually respectful relationships backs this up.</p>
<p>To stop young people feeling <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/positive-youth-justice">disaffected</a> then, they need to be consistently more involved in the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Youth-Justice-A-Critical-Introduction-1st-Edition/Case/p/book/9781138233256">decision making process</a> surrounding their rehabilitation. </p>
<p>This will not only help to pave the way for greater levels of engagement, but it will also help to maximise young people’s potential for success – and hopefully reduce the likelihood of them picking up a weapon in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Creaney is a member of the Advisory Board at social justice charity Peer Power Youth and a voluntary Board Director at Voice for Children. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Deakin is a member of the Research Advisory Group at The Howard League for Penal Reform</span></em></p>Young people’s voices need to be heard if we are to solve the knife crime crisis.Sean Creaney, Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Analysis of Offending Behaviour, Edge Hill UniversityJo Deakin, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1328552020-07-27T19:57:45Z2020-07-27T19:57:45ZMore than 90% of Year 10 teachers don’t know the age of criminal responsibility in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349505/original/file-20200727-15-12g399a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/child-hands-handcuffs-stop-violence-against-1297035106">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How would you answer the following question?</p>
<p>At what age can a child be fined or imprisoned for their actions in Australia?</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Any age, if she/he can differentiate right from wrong</p></li>
<li><p>ten years old</p></li>
<li><p>14 years old</p></li>
<li><p>16 years old</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t know</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our survey found only 7.2% of teachers and 5.8% of students knew the right answer — that criminal sanctions could be imposed on a ten year old. </p>
<p>Australian state and federal attorney-generals <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-quicksand-that-traps-these-kids-push-to-raise-age-of-criminal-responsibility-from-10-to-14-20200715-p55cek.html">will meet this week</a> to discuss lifting the age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old. </p>
<p>There were reportedly almost 600 children aged 10 to 13 in detention in Australia last financial year. More than 60% were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1287550027464708097"}"></div></p>
<p>As part of a larger study, we surveyed 250 Year 10 teachers and 533 Year 10 students (aged 15-16 years) in 2015 from three states in Australia (South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland). The students and teachers were from urban and regional areas in government and independent schools. </p>
<p>One issue we were interested in was student and teacher understanding about the age of criminal responsibility in their state. </p>
<hr>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/don-dale-royal-commission-demands-sweeping-change-is-there-political-will-to-make-it-happen-86223">Don Dale royal commission demands sweeping change – is there political will to make it happen?</a>
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<p>A significant proportion of teachers (36.8%) believed 16 was the minimum age of criminal responsibility. And 32.8% said they did not know the answer. </p>
<p>Nearly 30% of Year 10 students (29.8%) said criminal responsibility was possible at any age when the child could differentiate right from wrong. And 22.7% answered it was at 16 years old. The survey relevant to this article has not yet been published.</p>
<h2>The age of a criminal</h2>
<p>Across all Australian states and territories, a child must be at least ten years old age before they can be held criminally responsible for their actions.</p>
<p>It is important to acknowledge that <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-justice-australia-2017-18/report-editions">youth justice principles</a> (enshrined in legislation) in different states and territories hold that detention in custody is a sanction of last resort.</p>
<p>If a child is aged between ten and 14, there is a presumption (that can be rebutted) that they will not be criminally responsible, unless the prosecution can prove the child had capacity to know they should not do the act.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-year-olds-do-not-belong-in-detention-why-australia-must-raise-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-142483">Ten-year-olds do not belong in detention. Why Australia must raise the age of criminal responsibility</a>
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<p>The rationale behind a minimum age of criminal responsibility is that children of a certain age have not developed a full appreciation of right and wrong behaviour, and the consequences that flow from it.</p>
<p>Introducing them to the criminal justice system and subjecting them to criminal sanction would be unfair in these circumstances.</p>
<h2>Most teachers and students don’t know</h2>
<p>Our survey showed both Year 10 teachers and students were largely ignorant about the age of criminal responsibility in their state.</p>
<p>These misunderstandings are happening at a time of strong calls to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility. The <a href="https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/biglaw/27519-lawyers-press-council-of-attorney-generals-to-raise-age-of-criminal-responsibility">Australian Lawyers Alliance</a>, <a href="https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/media/media-releases/commonwealth-states-and-territories-must-lift-minimum-age-of-criminal-responsibility-to-14-years-remove-doli-incapax">Law Council of Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.racp.edu.au/news-and-events/media-releases/doctors-lawyers-experts-unite-in-call-to-raise-age-of-criminal-responsibility">Australian Medical Association</a> and the Royal Australian College of Physicians have all called for an increase to the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Australia.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1286915084363558912"}"></div></p>
<p>Raising the minimum age of responsibility (as an irrebuttable presumption) from ten to 14 would be <a href="https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/co/CRC_C_AUS_CO_4.pdf">consistent with recommendations</a> made by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.</p>
<p>While the United Kingdom also has a minimum age of ten, most <a href="https://archive.crin.org/en/home/ages/europe.html">European nations</a> have a minimum age of 14 years or higher. </p>
<h2>Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>Criminal law is designed to educate people about, and deter them from, committing crimes. Ignorance of the law is not a defence to a criminal charge, so school students over the age of ten have a vested interested in understanding how the criminal law (and possible sanctions) might apply to them.</p>
<p>School staff (in their pastoral role) also have a responsibility to teach students about criminal responsibility. The teacher-student relationship in formative years has the capacity to mould behaviour in social ways.</p>
<p>A teacher cannot impart knowledge about the criminal law that they themselves do not have.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-bill-keeping-10-year-olds-out-of-jail-is-a-good-start-but-it-needs-to-go-further-125872">A new bill keeping 10 year olds out of jail is a good start, but it needs to go further</a>
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<p>Schools can be a site for criminal behaviour. <a href="https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/1900/40/part3/div8b/sec60e">Section 60e of The Crimes Act 1900</a> (NSW), for instance, specifically prohibits the assault, stalking, harassment or intimidation of any school staff or student. </p>
<p>Students <a href="https://research.qut.edu.au/selb/projects/a-legally-informed-intervention-for-schools-to-prevent-and-intervene-in-cases-of-cyberbullying/">engaged in cyberbullying</a> could be charged under the Commonwealth <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A04868">Criminal Code Act 1995</a> with using a telecommunication service to menace, threaten or cause offence. </p>
<p>Staff and students need to be aware of these laws, and their potential criminal liability pursuant to these laws.</p>
<p>While many organisations are calling for a change to the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Australia, the fact there is even a need for change will come as a surprise to many schoolteachers and students.</p>
<p>Pre-service teachers need to learn these basic facts about the legal system as it applies to their students during their university course. And professional development needs to be provided for practising teachers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132855/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marilyn Campbell received ARC funding for a larger project of which the survey mentioned in this article is a part.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Duffy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A significant proportion of teachers surveyed (36.8%) believed 16 was the minimum age of criminal responsibility.Marilyn Campbell, Professor Faculty of Education, School of Cultural and Professional Learning, Queensland University of TechnologyJames Duffy, Senior Lecturer QUT Faculty of Law, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1424832020-07-22T19:52:48Z2020-07-22T19:52:48ZTen-year-olds do not belong in detention. Why Australia must raise the age of criminal responsibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348751/original/file-20200722-25-9ubdud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5742%2C3621&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia, children <a href="https://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/justicepolicy/Pages/lpclrd/lpclrd_consultation/review-minimum-age-of-criminal-responsibility.aspx">as young as ten</a> can be held criminally responsible for their actions. </p>
<p>This means they can be arrested by police, remanded in custody, convicted by the courts and imprisoned.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-432-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-since-1991-no-one-has-ever-been-convicted-racist-silence-and-complicity-are-to-blame-139873">Despite 432 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991, no one has ever been convicted. Racist silence and complicity are to blame</a>
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<hr>
<p>Next week, Australia’s state and federal attorneys-general <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-quicksand-that-traps-these-kids-push-to-raise-age-of-criminal-responsibility-from-10-to-14-20200715-p55cek.html">will meet to discuss</a> raising the age of criminal responsibility. </p>
<p>They cannot pass up this critical opportunity to change the way we treat vulnerable and marginalised children.</p>
<h2>How Australia compares</h2>
<p>In Australia, the age of criminal responsibility is just ten years old. </p>
<p>This is seriously out of step with international standards. In 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/sep/26/australia-urged-to-follow-un-advice-and-raise-age-of-criminal-responsibility-by-four-years">recommended 14 years</a> as the minimum age of criminal responsibility. </p>
<p>While the United Kingdom also has a minimum age of ten, most <a href="https://archive.crin.org/en/home/ages/europe.html">European nations</a> have a minimum age of 14 years or higher. </p>
<h2>Hundreds of children are locked up</h2>
<p>There is no available, recent national data on the number of young people who
appear before children’s courts, broken down in the ten to 13 age group. But <a href="https://jrna228913579.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/macr-final-2020-2.pdf">several thousand children</a> under 14 are estimated to appear on criminal matters each year, based on individual court’s annual reports and earlier figures.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/locking-up-kids-damages-their-mental-health-and-sets-them-up-for-more-disadvantage-is-this-what-we-want-117674">Locking up kids damages their mental health and sets them up for more disadvantage. Is this what we want?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-justice-in-australia-2018-19/data">2018-19</a>, 773 children under 14 were placed on court orders requiring supervision in the community by youth justice officers. </p>
<p>More than 570 were placed in juvenile detention. Some 65% of these two groups were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. </p>
<h2>Why we need to boost the age</h2>
<p>There are many well-founded and compelling reasons for increasing the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Australia to 14. These include: </p>
<ul>
<li>The dramatic and devastating impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, given the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-quicksand-that-traps-these-kids-push-to-raise-age-of-criminal-responsibility-from-10-to-14-20200715-p55cek.html">high numbers of Indigenous children</a>, aged ten to 13 in the youth justice system. </li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-my-blood-it-runs-challenges-the-inevitability-of-indigenous-youth-incarceration-140624">In My Blood It Runs challenges the 'inevitability' of Indigenous youth incarceration</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.racp.edu.au/docs/default-source/advocacy-library/b-20190729racp-submission-cag-review_final-gm-approved.pdf?sfvrsn=b384e61a_6">Child development</a> evidence showing children under 14 lack impulse control and have a poorly developed capacity to plan and foresee consequences.</p></li>
<li><p>The disproportionate number of children coming from the child protection system into youth justice. According to a 2017 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/06341e00-a08f-4a0b-9d33-d6c4cf1e3379/aihw-csi-025.pdf.aspx?inline=true">report</a>, three in five children aged ten at the time of their their first youth justice supervision were also in child protection. </p></li>
<li><p>The high numbers of children in the youth justice system with mental health issues and cognitive impairment. A <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/2/e019605">2018 study</a> found nine out of ten young people in Western Australian youth detention were severely impaired in at least one area of brain function. This obviously affects whether they can understand rules and instructions. </p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="https://jrna228913579.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/macr-final-2020-2.pdf">evidence also showing</a> the earlier a child enters the justice system, the greater the likelihood of lifelong interaction with the justice system.</p></li>
<li><p>The fact that young children in the justice system have high rates of pre-existing trauma and are “<a href="https://www.racp.edu.au/docs/default-source/advocacy-library/b-20190729racp-submission-cag-review_final-gm-approved.pdf?sfvrsn=b384e61a_6">physically and neuro-developmentally vulnerable</a>”. Unsurprisingly, criminalisation and imprisonment have a further negative impact on a child’s development. As the Royal Australasian College of Physicians notes: </p></li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p>Young children with problematic behaviour, and their families, need appropriate healthcare and protection. Involvement in the youth justice system is not an appropriate response to problematic behaviour.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Do we really believe ten-year-olds know what they are doing?</h2>
<p>If we really believed ten-year-olds have the knowledge and developmental capacity to make life-changing decisions about what is right and wrong to a standard of criminal responsibility, then we would also treat them differently in other aspects of life. </p>
<p>We would have a much younger age for when children can engage in consensual sex, leave school, get married, sign a contract and vote. </p>
<p>But we don’t. We prefer to protect, assist and guide young children and adolescents into adulthood. </p>
<h2>Community, expert pressure to act</h2>
<p>There is a growing <a href="https://www.raisetheage.org.au">community campaign</a>, calling on our leaders to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kids belong in classrooms and playgrounds, not in handcuffs, courtrooms or prison cells</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Through my research on youth justice, colleagues and I have interviewed youth workers, detention centre managers, magistrates and solicitors and have never spoken to anyone who thinks bringing a ten-year-old child into the justice system is a good outcome. </p>
<p>One of the few sites of opposition to raising the minimum age has been from <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/ladocs/other/11446/Answers%20to%20Supplementary%20Questions%20-%20NSW%20Police%20Force%20-%2021%20June%202018.pdf">some police forces</a>, who prefer to rely on the 14th century common law protection of <a href="https://www.judcom.nsw.gov.au/publications/benchbks/local/childrens_court.html"><em>doli incapax</em></a>. The doctrine holds that if a child is between the ages of ten and 14, they are presumed not to be capable of forming criminal intent and the prosecution are required to rebut that presumption. </p>
<p>Overwhelming <a href="https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/docs/75d8d90e-385c-ea11-9404-005056be13b5/3772%20-%20CAG%20Review%20of%20age%20of%20criminal%20responsibility.pdf">evidence shows</a> <em>doli incapax</em> does not protect young vulnerable children and is not <a href="https://jrna228913579.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/macr-final-2020-2.pdf">fit for purpose</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1285709867160928261"}"></div></p>
<h2>There are other options</h2>
<p>There is widespread agreement among <a href="https://www.racp.edu.au/news-and-events/media-releases/doctors-lawyers-experts-unite-in-call-to-raise-age-of-criminal-responsibility">legal and medical experts</a> that we can respond to children who are in conflict with the law in a far more supportive manner. </p>
<p>Organisations such as the <a href="https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/media/media-releases/commonwealth-states-and-territories-must-lift-minimum-age-of-criminal-responsibility-to-14-years-remove-doli-incapax">Law Council of Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.racp.edu.au/docs/default-source/advocacy-library/b-20190729racp-submission-cag-review_final-gm-approved.pdf?sfvrsn=b384e61a_6">College of Physicians</a> have noted we need greater emphasis on support services, treatment, early intervention, prevention, <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/publications/justice-reinvestment/">justice reinvestment</a> initiatives and community-led diversion programs, which are built on Indigenous <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/mp/files/publications/files/cip-5-the-yiriman-project-thorburn-and-marshall-2017-ijc-webv2.v1.pdf">authority and culture</a>.</p>
<p>We also have the substantial experience of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15zc73m">European jurisdictions</a> to draw on, where welfare agencies focus on the well-being and safe development of children in situations where we would currently resort to police, courts and punishment. </p>
<h2>Historic opportunity</h2>
<p>In November 2018, the Council of Attorneys-General <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/Council-of-Attorneys-General-communique-November-2018.pdf">agreed to examine</a> whether to raise the age of criminal responsibility. </p>
<p>After commissioning a review, they are expected to discuss the issue at their July 27 meeting. There are no clear commitments about what might happen beyond this. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother and young children at Australian Black Lives Matter protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348753/original/file-20200722-17-4x65kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348753/original/file-20200722-17-4x65kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348753/original/file-20200722-17-4x65kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348753/original/file-20200722-17-4x65kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348753/original/file-20200722-17-4x65kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348753/original/file-20200722-17-4x65kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348753/original/file-20200722-17-4x65kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recent Black Lives Matter protests have focused attention on racism in Australia’s justice system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glenn Hunt/ AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This cannot be just another meeting of politicians. </p>
<p>It is a group of powerful policy makers with a historic opportunity to change the way we treat vulnerable and marginalised children. And in particular, to improve the way we treat Indigenous children and their development. </p>
<p>At a time when there is so much attention on the need to <a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-432-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-since-1991-no-one-has-ever-been-convicted-racist-silence-and-complicity-are-to-blame-139873">end the racism</a> in our justice system, raising the age of criminal responsibility is more important than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Cunneen receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Hundreds of Australian children aged ten to 13 are in juvenile detention. Legal and medical experts say we must raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14.Chris Cunneen, Professor of Criminology, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1270242019-11-27T00:53:12Z2019-11-27T00:53:12ZDoes our child protection system cause young people to commit crimes? The evidence suggests so<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303626/original/file-20191126-84221-1hcl9o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=874%2C48%2C4525%2C3238&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If a child commits an offence while in the care of the state, questions should be asked about the quality of care and supervision being provided.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Removing a child from their home for their own protection should be an absolute last resort. Before we remove a child, we should be sure that we can offer them a safer, more nurturing alternative – their new home should improve their current circumstances and their life chances.</p>
<p>Yet, for a significant proportion of children who end up in out of home care, this is not happening. Many children are being charged with criminal offences while they are in the “care” of the state. </p>
<p>The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare recently <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/ebf46682-66a3-4d5e-85ce-0b3919c70dfd/aihw-CSI-27.pdf.aspx?inline=true">reported</a> that 50% of young people under youth justice supervision in Australia have also received child protection services. </p>
<p>The link is even more prevalent in Queensland – the Independent Review into Youth Detention <a href="http://www.youthdetentionreview.qld.gov.au/review-of-youth-detention-centres-report-updated-28-June-2017.pdf">reported</a> in 2017 that 76% of children in the youth justice system are known to the child safety department. </p>
<p>The Northern Territory Royal Commission also <a href="https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-01/rcnt-royal-commission-nt-final-report-volume-1.pdf">found</a> children on child protection orders are five times more likely to commit an offence than other children.</p>
<p>And my research has found the chain of causation goes in one direction in these matters: children come into the child protection system first and then commit offences, not the other way around.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nothing-to-see-here-the-abuse-and-neglect-of-children-in-care-is-a-century-old-story-in-australia-68743">Nothing to see here? The abuse and neglect of children in care is a century-old story in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Does out of home care lead to offending?</h2>
<p>If a child commits an offence while in the care of the state, questions should be asked about the quality of care and supervision being provided. Is the care environment somehow causing the criminal behaviour? Or is the association just coincidental?</p>
<p>It could be coincidental, in the sense that young people who interact with both the child protection and youth justice systems share certain characteristics. </p>
<p>Many suffer from mental health or behavioural conditions, are homeless or have experienced trauma or abuse. Indigenous children are also <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/ebf46682-66a3-4d5e-85ce-0b3919c70dfd/aihw-CSI-27.pdf.aspx?inline=true">more likely</a> to be known to child protection services, and more likely to appear before the criminal courts.</p>
<p>Yet, <a href="https://3bx16p38bchl32s0e12di03h-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/reducing-reoffending-by-looked-after-children.pdf">international research</a> suggests the nature of a child’s placement influences their chances of offending. Research from the US has also <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-01801-001">found</a> that children who are known to child protection services but remain at home are less likely to offend than those who are placed in out of home care.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-child-protection-isnt-the-money-its-the-system-itself-127111">The problem with child protection isn't the money, it's the system itself</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is all too easy to conclude these kids are just “troubled” or even “bad”. We might assume since they come from difficult homes, and they have psycho-social problems, this trajectory is inevitable. </p>
<p>But my research suggests there is more to this story. <a href="http://www.law.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/3430870/4-Cross-Over-Kids.pdf">I interviewed</a> 24 Brisbane-based lawyers and youth workers who deal with children who “cross over” between child protection and youth justice. </p>
<p>They overwhelmingly agreed the child protection system itself is leading many children to commit offences. </p>
<h2>Charges for minor offences</h2>
<p>The criminal charges these children receive appear to be unnecessary and avoidable. According to my interview subjects, many children who commit offences are driven by necessity. </p>
<p>For example, many children are charged with public transport fare evasion. Others are charged with shoplifting. These offences arise directly out of material disadvantage, but this is happening while they are supposed to be being in the care of the state. Why don’t they have transport cards? Why do they feel the need to steal food or clothing?</p>
<p>My participants said other charges result from the trauma or mental health conditions these children are dealing with. They described situations where their young clients had been charged with wilful damage for punching a wall, or assault for lashing out at a carer. </p>
<p>As one lawyer said, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This doesn’t happen in an ordinary family home – you don’t call the police because there’s a hole in the wall.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other types of offending involved trivial incidents that really just amounted to “kids being kids”. </p>
<p>My participants described situations where children were charged with theft for taking food out of the fridge, assault for whacking each other with tea towels, wilful damage for knocking down a locked bathroom door to use the toilet, break and enter for “breaking into” their own house, and trespass for bringing in a friend.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-resilience-can-break-the-link-between-a-bad-childhood-and-the-youth-justice-system-76392">How resilience can break the link between a 'bad' childhood and the youth justice system</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Importantly, the lawyers and social workers I interviewed emphasised that most often, the children who are charged with offences are living in residential care settings, rather than foster care situations. </p>
<p>Residential care is a placement option where children live in share houses in the community that are staffed by youth workers around the clock. These units house some of Australia’s most vulnerable children. Yet, the youth workers who staff them are often young themselves, and under-skilled. </p>
<p>What these kids most often need is a nurturing, home-like environment, but the youth workers may lack the life experience necessary to provide this. Calling police becomes a fall-back option to deal with difficult situations.</p>
<h2>Better environments for troubled children</h2>
<p>These children have fallen through all the cracks of the systems that should have supported them: family, education and child protection. Often, every adult in their lives has let them down. </p>
<p>As the UK criminologist Claire Taylor has said, we need to be “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Young_People_in_Care_and_Criminal_Behavi.html?id=qVEuERorZBEC&redir_esc=y">ambitious</a>” on behalf of these children. They need, and <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/asmade/act-2019-005">have a legal right to</a>, the best possible start the community can give them. </p>
<p>If we remove them from an “unsafe” environment, we must ensure we are placing them into a safe one – one where they will not be vulnerable to offending or criminal charges but rather will be nurtured and supported. </p>
<p>As one youth worker told me, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>it sounds a bit corny, but I reckon it all comes back to love – the offending and stuff is just a symptom.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamara Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What’s most concerning is children are being charged in out of home care for unnecessary and avoidable offences. We need to do a better job of placing children safe environments.Tamara Walsh, Professor, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1258722019-11-04T00:23:48Z2019-11-04T00:23:48ZA new bill keeping 10 year olds out of jail is a good start, but it needs to go further<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299092/original/file-20191029-183116-103j9ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5615%2C3715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children as young as ten may well lack the capacity to understand the wrongfulness of their behaviour.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A nine-year-old boy was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/21/year-old-is-facing-five-counts-murder-he-didnt-even-know-what-alleged-meant/">recently charged</a> with arson and five counts of murder in Illinois, US. In court, the boy didn’t even understand what “arson” meant. </p>
<p>In Australia, a nine year old cannot be prosecuted and found guilty of an offence, but a ten year old can. From ten until 14, children can be held criminally responsible in criminal proceedings if there is proof the child understood the wrongfulness of their behaviour. </p>
<p>But it’s increasingly clear ten years old is too young for a child to be held criminally accountable. </p>
<p>There have been calls for an increase to the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Australia for many decades. The commonwealth, state and territory governments have so far been reluctant to change the age level – but that may soon change. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/young-crime-is-often-a-phase-and-locking-kids-up-is-counterproductive-120968">Young crime is often a phase, and locking kids up is counterproductive</a>
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<p>A private member’s <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fbills%2Fr6421_first-reps%2F0000%22;rec=0">bill</a> currently before the federal parliament proposes to raise the minimum age to 14 for federal offences. And a working group reviewing the issue will report to the Council of Attorneys-General at the end of November. </p>
<p>Australia’s minimum age <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fr6421_ems_74c9109b-0ebf-400e-b0d5-e4d780748396%22">is low compared</a> to other countries. Most European countries have set their age between 14 and 16, while others such as China, Russia, Japan and Sierra Leone have it set at 14.</p>
<p>The increase would be in line with Australia’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Last month the UN Committee <a href="http://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2fPPRiCAqhKb7yhsqIkirKQZLK2M58RF%2f5F0vEnG3QGKUxFivhToQfjGxYjV05tUAIgpOwHQJsFPdJXCiixFSrDRwow8HeKLLh8cgOw1SN6vJ%2bf0RPR9UMtGkA4">recommended</a> all countries should adopt a minimum age of at least 14, but preferably 15 or 16.</p>
<h2>Breaking the cycle</h2>
<p>Raising the age would break the cycle of early entry into, and entanglement within, the criminal justice system. Children <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-Sky-is-the-Limit-FINAL-1.pdf">arrested before</a> 14 years old are three times more likely than those arrested after 14, to reoffend as adults. </p>
<p>It would particularly help address the crisis of over-representation of young Indigenous children in the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>Between 2016 and 2017, an <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-Sky-is-the-Limit-FINAL-1.pdf">average 566</a> children aged ten, 11, 12 and 13 years were in detention. Of these 69% were Indigenous children. </p>
<p>The criminal justice system is no place for children who lack the capacity to be criminally responsible at the age of ten, or even 12 or 14. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.qfcc.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/For%20professionals/policy/minimum-age-criminal-responsibility.pdf">part of the brain</a> responsible for abstract reasoning and the ability to control impulses is still developing in children that age. They’re less able to gauge the longer-term consequences of their behaviour, understand the impact of their actions or to comprehend criminal proceedings.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/congratulations-youre-ten-now-you-can-be-arrested-106115">Congratulations, you’re ten! Now you can be arrested</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>What’s more, research shows <a href="https://yjlc.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Neurodisability_Report_FINAL_UPDATED__01_11_12.pdf">developmental and cognitive disabilities</a> – which result in communication difficulties, cognitive delay, learning disabilities, emotional and behavioural problems and lack of inhibition – are more prevalent in the juvenile justice sector than in the <a href="https://yjlc.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Neurodisability_Report_FINAL_UPDATED__01_11_12.pdf">general population</a>. </p>
<h2>What happens if the bill passes?</h2>
<p>Even if passed, the bill might prove of limited use because it only applies to federal offences.</p>
<p>Such offences, often related to national or international matters, <a href="https://www.cdpp.gov.au/prosecution-process/how-we-differ-state-dpps">include</a> importing serious drugs, tax and social security fraud, counter-terrorism, money laundering, environmental offences, human trafficking, slavery and servitude, and online child sexual exploitation. </p>
<p>So if the bill passes, a child could still be prosecuted for a state or territory criminal offence at a younger age than they could be prosecuted for a federal offence. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-evidence-based-law-reform-to-reduce-rates-of-indigenous-incarceration-94228">We need evidence-based law reform to reduce rates of Indigenous incarceration</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Still, a change to the federal age might make the states and territories consider raising theirs to avoid such a situation. </p>
<p>It’s also <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/CICrimJust/2015/15.html">possible</a> for the federal government to step in and increase the age in all states and territories, to ensure Australia complies with its UN obligations. But such a move would probably be unpopular with the states and territories.</p>
<h2>Soft on crime?</h2>
<p>We might expect the bill will face no problem getting passed in parliament – the arguments for change are compelling. But setting the age of criminal responsibility isn’t just based on research, it’s a question of policy and is influenced largely by politics. </p>
<p>The bill could face an uphill battle, with politicians not wanting to appear as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/federal-bill-raise-minimum-age-of-criminal-responsibility-to-14/11601174">being soft on youth crime</a>. The Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter, in a statement to the ABC, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/federal-bill-raise-minimum-age-of-criminal-responsibility-to-14/11601174">called</a> the bill highly controversial because it would mean there would never be any circumstances where a person aged ten to 14 could be held responsible for their actions.</p>
<p>It must be made clear when the bill is being debated that increasing the age does not mean children will get away with crime and nothing can be done. There are more effective ways to respond to offending by children than the criminal justice system. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/locking-up-kids-damages-their-mental-health-and-sets-them-up-for-more-disadvantage-is-this-what-we-want-117674">Locking up kids damages their mental health and sets them up for more disadvantage. Is this what we want?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Scotland, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/may/07/scotland-raises-age-of-criminal-responsibility-from-8-to-12">which has recently raised its criminally responsible age to 12</a>, children are <a href="http://www.parliament.scot/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets/S5/SB_16-54_Children_and_the_Scottish_Criminal_Justice_System.pdf">rarely prosecuted</a>, unless they commit a serious offence.</p>
<p>Children under 16 who commit an offence are generally referred to the <a href="https://www.mygov.scot/childrens-hearings/">children’s hearing system</a>, which determines whether they are in need of support and can issue a <a href="https://www.scra.gov.uk/young_people/questions-and-answers/">Compulsory Supervision Order</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-Sky-is-the-Limit-FINAL-1.pdf">Amnesty International</a> note: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>an educational, medical, psychological, social and cultural response that deals with the underlying causes is more effective and appropriate than a justice response.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Crofts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In one year, an average 566 children between 10 and 13 were in detention. Almost 70% were Indigenous children.Thomas Crofts, Professor, School of Law and Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong KongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1247792019-10-08T03:59:07Z2019-10-08T03:59:07Z‘The Australian government is not listening’: how our country is failing to protect its children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295946/original/file-20191008-128665-1gnwbwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=158%2C47%2C4890%2C2556&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The UN said it was 'seriously concerned' about the rise in mental health problems among children in Australia, including those from refugee and asylum-seeking families.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erik Anderson/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last month, Australia appeared before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva for a five-year assessment of the government’s progress in protecting the rights of children. The hearing included submissions from the Australian government, the Australian Human Rights Commission and civil society organisations on everything from youth justice issues to children’s health and well-being.</p>
<p>Among those who spoke at the hearing was 12-year-old <a href="https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2019/9/11/the-speech-12-year-old-dujuan-delivered-at-the-un-human-rights-council">Dujuan Hoosan</a> from Arrernte and Garrwa country in central Australia, who called on the Australian government to stop imprisoning 10-year-olds, support Aboriginal-led education programs, and respect the culture and rights of all children in Australia. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I came here to speak with you because the Australian government is not listening. Adults never listen to kids like me. But we have important things to say.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He is believed to be the <a href="https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2019/9/11/the-speech-12-year-old-dujuan-delivered-at-the-un-human-rights-council">youngest person</a> ever to address the UN Human Rights Council. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WFJfYI-XYWo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>On Friday, the UN committee handed down <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/AUS/CRC_C_AUS_CO_5-6_37291_E.pdf">its report</a> – and it paints a gloomy picture. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-must-do-better-at-protecting-childrens-rights-7876">Australia must do better at protecting children's rights</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The committee was extremely critical of the Australian government on a range of issues. These included the high numbers of children in care and the criminal justice system, the continued <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sterilisation-girls-and-young-women-australia-issues-and-progress">forced sterilisation of children with disabilities</a>, the government’s treatment of refugee and asylum-seeking children, and the lack of meaningful opportunities for children to participate in decision-making on policies that affect their lives. </p>
<p>Many of the recommendations go to the heart of the ingrained political, cultural and legal inferiority of children in Australia. </p>
<h2>Children and the criminal justice system</h2>
<p>The Australian government played a major role in the drafting and passage of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">UN Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> nearly 30 years ago and was among its first signatories. The convention is one of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/11/21/why-wont-the-u-s-ratify-the-u-n-s-child-rights-treaty/">most ratified human rights treaties in history</a>. It plays an important role in defining and upholding the rights of children. </p>
<p>Despite this, Australia still <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-year-on-from-royal-commission-findings-on-northern-territory-child-detention-what-has-changed-106993">does not have a national strategy</a> to ensure the implementation of appropriate protections of children’s rights. </p>
<p>The youth justice system in Australia, for example, has been described for some time as being in crisis. </p>
<p>In 2017, <a href="https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/royal-commission-detention-and-protection-children-northern-territory">the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory</a> shone a light onto some of the most serious violations in Australia’s youth justice system. It found that over the past decade, children in the NT were frequently mistreated, abused, humiliated and left alone for long periods. <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-year-on-from-royal-commission-findings-on-northern-territory-child-detention-what-has-changed-106993">The local government has done little to address the issues</a> since then. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-year-on-from-royal-commission-findings-on-northern-territory-child-detention-what-has-changed-106993">One year on from Royal Commission findings on Northern Territory child detention: what has changed?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Queensland’s youth justice system <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-17/youth-justice-overhaul-in-wake-of-watch-house-revealations/11123238">is now under scrutiny</a>, after media reports earlier this year found that children as young as 10 were being housed in adult watch houses.</p>
<p>Nationally, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/youth-justice-inquiry-finds-rise-in-children-on-remand/9519506">media reports</a> and <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/55f8ff82-9091-420d-a75e-37799af96943/aihw-juv-128-youth-detention-population-in-Australia-2018-bulletin-145-dec-2018.pdf.aspx?inline=true">official statistics</a> show the rising numbers of children being remanded in prison rather than being granted bail. This is contrary to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">international guidelines</a>, which say that prison should only be used as a “last resort”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/AUS/CRC_C_AUS_CO_5-6_37291_E.pdf">UN committee report</a> made a number of major recommendations on criminal justice issues, including urging the Australian government</p>
<ul>
<li><p>to immediately raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to an internationally acceptable age of 14</p></li>
<li><p>to immediately implement the <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/pathways-to-justice-inquiry-into-the-incarceration-rate-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-alrc-report-133/">2018 recommendations of the Australian Law
Reform Commission</a> to reduce the high rates of Indigenous children who are imprisoned</p></li>
<li><p>to prohibit the use of isolation and force against children in detention, including the use of restraints, and immediately investigate all cases of abuse and mistreatment of children in detention </p></li>
<li><p>to urge the Northern Territory and Western Australia to review and repeal <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/incarceration-rates-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-dp-84/4-sentencing-options/mandatory-sentencing/">mandatory minimum sentences</a> for children. </p></li>
</ul>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1171982413783691264"}"></div></p>
<p>Some of these recommendations were tabled over a year ago by the <a href="https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/royal-commission-detention-and-protection-children-northern-territory">royal commission</a>, but no major steps have been taken since. </p>
<p>The committee also urged Australia to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment of children in all settings, including homes, schools, detention centres and alternative care. It also called for laws in states and territories that permit “<a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/corporal-punishment-key-issues">reasonable chastisement</a>” to be repealed. </p>
<p>These laws currently allow adults to physically discipline children as long as it is “reasonable” in the circumstances. As <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6021433/smacking-children-in-australia-should-be-made-illegal-to-change-conversation-around-domestic-violence/">campaigners against the practice</a> rightly argue, “reasonable” is a vague term and open to interpretation. The UN committee wants it banned, as has recently taken place in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/03/the-guardian-view-on-scotlands-smacking-ban-follow-the-leader">Scotland</a>.</p>
<h2>Mental health and suicide</h2>
<p>The committee also said it was “seriously concerned” that the number of Australian children with mental health problems was on the rise. This is particularly so for children in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities or alternative care, those who are homeless, living in rural and remote areas or asylum-seekers, those from culturally diverse backgrounds and LGBTI children.</p>
<p>The report noted that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>almost one in seven children were assessed with mental health problems, with
suicide being the leading cause of death for those aged 15-24.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-can-help-refugee-kids-to-thrive-in-australia-75540">How we can help refugee kids to thrive in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Among its recommendations to the government were</p>
<ul>
<li><p>prioritising mental health service delivery to children in vulnerable
situations, such as those groups listed above</p></li>
<li><p>strengthening measures to ensure the side effects of certain drugs for ADHD are fully communicated to parents/guardians and children and that they are prescribed “as a measure of last resort”</p></li>
<li><p>continuing to provide children with education on sexual and reproductive
health as part of the mandatory school curriculum.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Political attitudes toward children</h2>
<p>Finally, the committee also addressed the ways in which Australian politicians responded to children who took part in recent climate strikes. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/morrison-responds-to-greta-thunberg-speech-by-warning-children-against-needless-climate-anxiety">brushed off children’s demands for climate action</a>, while others made <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-kids-didn-t-stay-in-school-and-the-politicians-lost-their-cool-20190920-p52tcy.html">patronising comments</a> about them being better off in the classroom than on the streets protesting. </p>
<p>The committee emphasised that the effects of climate change have an undeniable impact on children’s rights and expressed “its concern and disappointment” that the children’s climate change protests </p>
<blockquote>
<p>received a strongly worded negative response from those in authority, which
demonstrates disrespect for their right to express their views on this important issue.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Time for change</h2>
<p>None of these changes will happen without political will. Civil society, human rights groups and state children’s commissioners have crucial roles to play in continuing to advocate on behalf of children and speak up when they are being mistreated and their rights are being infringed. </p>
<p>The committee’s report card is not a badge of honour, and it puts Australia on a list of countries that have the necessary resources to support their next generation, but are failing to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noam Peleg led, together with the Diplomacy Training Programme and UNSW Law, a Children’s Rights Monitoring Capacity Building Programme since 2017.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Faith Gordon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a recent report, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was highly critical of the Australian government for its youth justice failures and the rise of children with mental health issues.Faith Gordon, Lecturer in Criminology, Monash UniversityNoam Peleg, Senior lecturer, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1135942019-03-18T10:36:49Z2019-03-18T10:36:49ZClimate strikes: researcher explains how young people can keep up the momentum<p>As part of one of the largest environmental protests ever seen, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2019/mar/15/climate-strikes-2019-live-latest-climate-change-global-warming">over a million young people</a> went on strike on Friday March 15 2019, calling for more ambitious action on climate change. Inspired by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish school girl who protested outside the Swedish parliament every Friday throughout 2018, young people in over 100 countries left their classrooms and took to the streets.</p>
<p>The previous #YouthStrike4Climate on February 15 2019 mobilised over 10,000 young people in over 40 locations in the UK alone. Their marches, chants and signs captured attention and prompted debates regarding the motivations and methods of young strikers. Many were criticised by those in the government and the media for simply wanting <a href="https://twitter.com/andrealeadsom/status/1096441011914637312">an opportunity to miss school</a>.</p>
<p>My PhD research explores youth participation in climate change governance, focusing on the UN climate negotiations. Between 2015 and 2018 I closely studied the Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) – a UK based, voluntary, youth-led group of 18 to 29 year olds – which attends the international negotiations and coordinates local and national climate change campaigns.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264137/original/file-20190315-28505-xjuriy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=72%2C25%2C419%2C303&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264137/original/file-20190315-28505-xjuriy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264137/original/file-20190315-28505-xjuriy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264137/original/file-20190315-28505-xjuriy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264137/original/file-20190315-28505-xjuriy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264137/original/file-20190315-28505-xjuriy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264137/original/file-20190315-28505-xjuriy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the UK Youth Climate Coalition protest in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harriet Thew</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research shows that young people are mobilised by concern for people and wildlife, fears for the future and anger that climate action is neither sufficiently rapid nor ambitious. Young people need to feel as though they are “doing something” about climate change while politicians dither and scientists release increasingly alarming projections of future climate conditions. </p>
<p>The strikes have helped young activists find like-minded peers and new opportunities to engage. They articulate a collective youth voice, wielding the moral power of young people – a group which society agrees it is supposed to protect. All the same, there are threats to sustaining the movement’s momentum which need to be recognised now.</p>
<h2>Challenge misplaced paternalism</h2>
<p>The paternalism that gives youth a moral platform is a double-edged sword. Patronising responses from adults in positions of authority, from head teachers to the prime minister, dismiss their scientifically informed concerns and attack the messenger, rather than dealing with the message itself.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You’re too young to understand the complexity of this. </p>
<p>You’ll grow out of these beliefs.</p>
<p>You just want to skip school.</p>
<p>Stay in school and wait your turn to make a difference.</p>
<p>Striking may hurt your future job prospects.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The list goes on …</p>
<p>This frightens some children and young people into silence, but doesn’t address the factors which mobilised them in the first place. These threats are also largely unfounded. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-a-climate-scientist-answers-questions-from-teenagers-113530">Climate change: a climate scientist answers questions from teenagers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To any young person reading this, I want to reassure you, as a university educator, that critical thinking, proactivity and an interest in current affairs are qualities that universities encourage. Over 200 academics signed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/13/school-climate-strike-childrens-brave-stand-has-our-support">this open letter</a> – myself included – showing our support for the school strikes.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1106627736599171072"}"></div></p>
<h2>Don’t ‘grow up’</h2>
<p>Growing up is inevitable, but it can cause problems for youth movements. As young people gain experience of climate action and expand their professional networks, they “grow out of” being able to represent youth, often getting jobs to advocate for other groups or causes. While this can be positive for individuals, institutional memory is lost when experienced advocates move on to do other things. This puts youth at a disadvantage in relation to other groups who are better resourced and don’t have a “time limit” in how long they can represent their cause. </p>
<p>Well-established youth organisations, such as Guides and Scouts, whom I have worked with in the past, can use their large networks and professional experience to sustain youth advocacy on climate change, though they lack the resources to do so alone. It would also help for other campaigners to show solidarity with the young strikers, and to recognise youth as an important group in climate change debates. This will give people more opportunity to keep supporting the youth climate movement as they get older.</p>
<h2>Grow the climate justice movement</h2>
<p>Researching the same group of young people for three years, I have identified a shift in their attitudes over time. As young participants become more involved in the movement, they encounter different types of injustices voiced by other groups. They hear activists sharing stories of the devastating climate impacts already experienced by communities, in places where sea level rise is inundating homes and droughts are killing livestock and causing starvation. </p>
<p>The climate justice movement emphasises how climate change exacerbates racial and economic inequality but frequently overlooks the ways these <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2013.835203">inequalities intersect with age-based disadvantages</a>.
Forgetting that frontline communities contain young people, youth movements in developed countries like the UK begin to question the validity of their intergenerational injustice claims. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264316/original/file-20190318-28492-v9qwy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264316/original/file-20190318-28492-v9qwy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264316/original/file-20190318-28492-v9qwy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264316/original/file-20190318-28492-v9qwy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264316/original/file-20190318-28492-v9qwy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264316/original/file-20190318-28492-v9qwy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264316/original/file-20190318-28492-v9qwy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous people often inhabit the frontline of impacts from pollution and climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/5762451515/in/photolist-9Md55k-9MfSWW-9Md56n-23j9CM8-qanLv3-8JRJgA-8JC8HD-7HptUR-VaXFmh-p6egVV-NoK15L-8JU86T-5HuQ2z-8JCNyZ-VaXFpJ-poG7ht-p7cQad-9MfRWm-9MfSLd-7HtpSN-p42LP4-7GPNQs-7GPQcq-7Hptok-8jD7su-7GKHvT-p43NR6-prqFc8-7GKFsK-p42ZFN-p42JDT-7GKMSv-VyHfFM-8JCjnD-7GKGbc-pkvavE-pkwU7H-8jEeYG-8JRMv5-8YTnGL-9Md6sD-9Md5TM-9Md6mP-9MfShG-9Md5rx-9MfS1S-9Md6Ec-23j9Do8-2b2hUva-21VjGih">Rainforest Action Network/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many feel ashamed for having claimed vulnerability, given their relatively privileged position. Over time, they lose faith in their right to be heard. It would strengthen the entire climate movement if other climate justice campaigners more vocally acknowledged young people as a vulnerable group and shared their platform so that these important voices could better amplify one another. </p>
<p>With my own platform, I would like to say this to the thousands who went on strike. You matter. You have a right to be heard and you shouldn’t be embarrassed to speak out. Have confidence in your message, engage with others but stay true to your principles. Stick together and remember that even when you leave school and enter work – you’re never too old to be a youth advocate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1113594">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harriet Thew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The school strikes are a serious moral challenge to climate inaction, but they must overcome certain challenges to maintain momentum.Harriet Thew, PhD Researcher in Climate Change Governance, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1061152018-11-01T11:48:21Z2018-11-01T11:48:21ZCongratulations, you’re ten! Now you can be arrested<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243295/original/file-20181031-122177-qrgtkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/burning-candles-242560783?src=SuzQMMXmSlj02G1TOVWgEw-1-61">Pumatokoh/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not so long ago, my then nine-year-old daughter wandered into my office at home. She saw a book on a shelf: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Behind-Bars-Abuse-Imprisonment/dp/1447321537">Children Behind Bars</a> by Carolyne Willow. </p>
<p>“Children Behind Bars, Daddy? What does that mean?!” she exclaimed. I replied that this refers to children under the age of 18 held in prison. She then asked how many children there are in prison in the UK, guessing at 50. “Well, it’s almost 1,000,” I replied. The figure is actually 875 (or 969 if 18-year-olds are included), according to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-custody-data#history">data</a> compiled in August 2018.</p>
<p>My daughter was very surprised at this, and asked me how old these children were. I explained that most are 16 or 17, but some can be younger: as young as ten. This was the last straw: “Ten years old! But I’m nearly ten!” The following month, I congratulated her on her significant birthday – although something stopped me from mentioning the newly acquired eligibility for arrest.</p>
<p>This conversation with my daughter helped remind me of the importance of the issue, and that children often ask some of the most useful questions. The age of criminal responsibility refers to the minimum age that a child can be prosecuted and punished by law for a criminal offence. In England and Wales, this is ten years. (In Scotland, the age of criminal responsibility is lower than that in England and Wales at eight years, but since 2010 it is not possible prosecute children below the age of 12: those between eight and 12 can only be dealt with through welfare mechanisms.)</p>
<h2>Ten and a criminal</h2>
<p>By international standards, this age of criminal responsibility is very low, falling below the internationally recommended absolute minimum of 12 years. Excluding the other jurisdictions within the United Kingdom, the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is the lowest in the European Union. It is, for example, 14 years in Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria, and 16 in Portugal and Romania.</p>
<p>And when jurisdictions outside of Europe are considered, England and Wales <a href="http://thenayj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2012-The-Age-of-Criminal-responsibility.pdf">remains an outlier</a>. In Cuba, Chile, the Russian Federation and Hong Kong, the age is 16; in Mongolia, Korea, Azerbaijan and Zambia it is 14; and in Canada, Costa Rica, Lebanon and Turkey, it stands at 12 years. A <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/7996/1/Cross_national_final.pdf">comparison</a> of 90 countries in 2008 for the Youth Justice Board found that the most common age (adopted by around a quarter of the sample) was 14 years.</p>
<p>England and Wales’s low age of criminal responsibility has attracted considerable international criticism from the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/crc/pages/crcindex.aspx">UN Committee on the Rights of the Child</a>. They have suggested that the age should be raised to at least 12 years old and that the government should support the <a href="https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/ageofcriminalresponsibility.html">Age of Criminal Responsibility Bill</a>, introduced by Lord Dholakia in the House of Lords in 2017.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://thenayj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2012-The-Age-of-Criminal-responsibility.pdf">considerable</a> <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1473225413492054">evidence</a> <a href="https://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/files/139101063/Ark_Feature_MACR.pdf">in support</a> of raising the age of criminal responsibility has not influenced policy. Indeed, in 2011 the minister with responsibility for youth justice <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110308/halltext/110308h0001.htm">told parliament</a>: “We have no plans to change the age of criminal responsibility.”</p>
<p>His main argument was that children aged ten are able to distinguish between “bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing”. This may be true for most children. But it is far less clear that children of this age commonly fully understand the consequences that flow from their actions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243444/original/file-20181101-83626-4b1qlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243444/original/file-20181101-83626-4b1qlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243444/original/file-20181101-83626-4b1qlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243444/original/file-20181101-83626-4b1qlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243444/original/file-20181101-83626-4b1qlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243444/original/file-20181101-83626-4b1qlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243444/original/file-20181101-83626-4b1qlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Is this reasonable?.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-on-pair-hands-child-teenager-665976883?src=sK8F5DxSoctgAbG3C8Lw5w-1-22">Jan H Andersen/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<h2>A historical view</h2>
<p>The law has long recognised that young children should not be held responsible for criminal acts. Before the 20th century, children under the age of seven were considered incapable of crime. Those aged seven to 14 years, meanwhile, were considered to be “<em>doli incapax</em>”, or incapable of comprehending the criminal wrongfulness of their actions, unless proven otherwise.</p>
<p>The age of criminal responsibility was raised to eight years in 1933. Then the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 legislated to prohibit the prosecution of any child below the age of 14, following advice from the Ingleby Committee. This legislation also contained a strong presumption against the prosecution of those aged 14-16.</p>
<p>But within a short period, the tide had turned and these provisions were not fully implemented. No government since has given serious consideration to increasing the age of criminal responsibility. There were unhelpful developments in the 1990s following a sustained period of increased police recorded crime, and the associated political rivalry to appear “tough” on crime: the abolition of <em>doli incapax</em> in 1998 effectively exposed children aged ten to 14 to the force of the criminal law. We still live with the consequences of that period and the systemic changes it led to. There is nothing inevitable about this. There has been a rather different direction of travel in Scotland, for example, which this year introduced a bill to raise the age to 12 years.</p>
<p>One of the practical consequences of having such a low age of criminal responsibility is that even younger children can also get caught up in the criminal justice net. An all-party parliamentary enquiry reporting in 2014 on <a href="https://www.ncb.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Policy_docs/appgc_children_and_police_report_-_final.pdf">children and the police</a> found that more than 1,000 children under the age of ten – and some as young as four – had been stopped and searched by the police in England and Wales over the previous five years.</p>
<p>Thankfully, while my daughter is now old enough to be arrested, she hasn’t had any involvement with the police and I sincerely hope that is the way it stays. But for the sake of children in our society more broadly, we need to debate, and change, something as important as the age of criminal responsibility. It says something about who we are as a society and how we treat the most vulnerable. </p>
<p>A low age of criminal responsibility means that we are responding to welfare issues with criminal justice responses, and potentially damaging the prospects of young people and their potential future contributions to society. To some extent, any age we choose is an arbitrary one. But raising the age in line with international requirements, particularly if accompanied by other system changes, would reduce social harm. Children in conflict with the law are among the most vulnerable people in society, even though that is not how they tend to be depicted in mainstream media.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106115/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Little is Chair, Board of Trustees, The National Association for Youth Justice.</span></em></p>Why is the age of criminal responsibility in the UK the lowest in the European Union?Ross Little, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/927362018-03-20T19:05:26Z2018-03-20T19:05:26ZThere’s still a long way to go for the Don Dale royal commission to achieve justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210038/original/file-20180313-30986-1hq13o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The detail of the government’s reforms remains elusive four months after commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda handed down their final report.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The worth of the <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">royal commission</a> into the Northern Territory’s child detention system will be known only when the territory government goes about the task of implementing <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/Documents/Royal-Commission-NT-Findings-and-Recomendations.pdf">its recommendations</a>. It will test the government’s capacity to redress the “systemic and shocking failures” the commission identified.</p>
<p>The detail of the government’s reforms remains elusive four months after the commission’s <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/Report.aspx#_Findings">final report</a> was handed down. However, the challenges to implementation and justice are clear.</p>
<p>In March, the government <a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/24304">affirmed its commitment</a> to “generational change”, and announced <a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/24289">it will implement</a> all 227 recommendations. Its actions range from spending A$70 million to build new detention centres, diversion strategies (such as bail support and non-custodial sentencing programs), and the establishment of family service hubs.</p>
<p>The government reiterated the <a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/23952">promises it made</a> last November to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>close the Don Dale and Alice Springs youth detention centres;</p></li>
<li><p>provide bail accommodation; and</p></li>
<li><p>have greater Aboriginal Community Controlled Sector involvement in family support.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But will this approach create deep-seated change in youth justice?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/don-dale-royal-commission-demands-sweeping-change-is-there-political-will-to-make-it-happen-86223">Don Dale royal commission demands sweeping change – is there political will to make it happen?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Recommendations that fall short</h2>
<p>A key demand of advocates for youth justice reform has been to <a href="https://shutyouthprisonsmparntwe.wordpress.com/">shut down detention centres</a>. Their view is detention has failed children and damaged lives. </p>
<p>The commission identified this failure, but it fell short of recommending their closure. Instead, it proposed purpose-built detention centres. The government <a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/24289">has announced</a> it will build two new detention centres.</p>
<p>The recommendation to establish 20 family support centres is likely to reproduce old ways of managing Indigenous families without a clear imperative to reduce the removal of children from families.</p>
<p>Without increased resources being given to Indigenous families, communities and organisations to maintain the wellbeing of their children based on Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing, these centres will only replicate established institutional practices of managing children. </p>
<p>That there are only 20 centres means they will not provide place-based care across the hundreds of Indigenous communities and homelands in the NT.</p>
<p>The recommendation to consult and partner with Aboriginal Peak Organisations in developing an Aboriginal Out-of-Home Care Strategy may not give Indigenous communities a voice. </p>
<p>The commission heard that since <a href="https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/northern-territory-emergency-response-intervention">the Intervention</a> in 2007, government consultation has become a dirty word in Indigenous communities. They <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/NT-public-hearings/Documents/transcripts-2016/Transcript-12-October-2016.pdf">feel betrayed</a> by the Commonwealth government, which consults only after policies are decided. </p>
<p>Where Indigenous organisations spoke out against government policy, their organisations <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/NT-public-hearings/Documents/transcripts-2017/Transcript-21-June-2017.pdf">were defunded</a>. The commitment that is needed therefore is not simply one of consultation, but empowerment. </p>
<p>The commission noted two officers displayed particularly egregious conduct, but did not recommend charges be laid against them or detention managers be held to account. This continues the lack of justice for the young people tortured in detention. </p>
<p>Matters that have gone before the courts paint a bleak picture. </p>
<p>In 2014, Alice Springs detention supervisor Derek Tasker was prosecuted in the NT Supreme Court for choking Dylan Voller and bashing his head against a cell wall. The footage of this incident showed 14-year-old Voller quietly sitting in his cell when Tasker grabbed him. The court found Tasker’s actions were reasonable and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-08/guard-involved-in-stripping-voller-to-front-royal-commission/8336788">he was acquitted</a>.</p>
<p>In 2017, a civil case was brought by four of the six Indigenous boys who were gassed in Don Dale’s isolation unit in 2014. Despite all bar one having been sitting in their cell passively, the court found the gassing was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-21/don-dale-teenagers-gassed-win-civil-lawsuit-against-nt-govt/8373768">“reasonable and necessary”</a> and did not award compensation for this aspect of the claim.</p>
<h2>The NT government’s reticence</h2>
<p>Ninety-one of the commission’s recommendations have received <a href="http://www.ntnews.com.au/lifestyle/nt-govt-to-accept-all-227-royal-commission-findings/news-story/426a74f396e98142527c9ddd9879d8c2">mere in-principle support</a>. This includes the controversial measure to increase criminal liability from ten to 12 years of age, and to keep kids under 14 out of detention centres.</p>
<p>This would make the NT the first Australian jurisdiction to lift the age of criminal responsibility from ten. While not substantially reducing the youth detention population, it would prevent the brutalisation of the youngest and most-vulnerable children.</p>
<p>The NT government has continuously referred to the need for the federal government to step up to its responsibility to care for children, especially <a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/23952">by matching</a> its initial $50 million funding commitment.</p>
<p>But youth justice and child protection are squarely in the domain of the states and territories. The federal government’s failure to act would be a weak basis for the NT government to disavow its responsibilities.</p>
<h2>Ideology gets in the way</h2>
<p>Policing of young people alongside a government mantra of “tough on crime” have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-indigenous-kids-in-detention-in-the-nt-in-the-first-place-63257">major push factors</a> for Indigenous children becoming increasingly detained in the NT over the past decade.</p>
<p>This approach has continued unabated: the government unleashed the Territory Response Group police unit to monitor young people immediately after the royal commission concluded.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-indigenous-kids-in-detention-in-the-nt-in-the-first-place-63257">Why are so many Indigenous kids in detention in the NT in the first place?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The NT government continues to refer to children in detention as <a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/24304">“problem youth”</a>, and its goal as creating <a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/24289">“safer communities”</a>. Such a persistent focus on children as a criminal risk subordinates a focus on children’s human rights.</p>
<p>Indigenous witnesses from remote communities who came before the commission spoke about the devastating effect the Intervention had on their capacity to care for their children.</p>
<p>These witnesses referred to the bureaucratisation of Indigenous services that had previously been community-run and its regime of discriminatory controls. They described the torture in Don Dale as an extension of the Intervention and requiring immediate repeal.</p>
<p>However, in responding to the commission, the federal government <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children/news/2018/australian-government-response-to-the-royal-commission-into-the-protection-and-detention-of-children-in-the-northern-territory">said</a> it would not revisit its role in the NT.</p>
<h2>A bigger shift is needed</h2>
<p>When the commission’s final report was handed down, NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner <a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/23952">said</a> the findings were “a stain on the Northern Territory reputation”. But this stain will continue to spread if there is only reform at the margins.</p>
<p>Implementation must proceed on the basis that penal institutions have failed Indigenous children, and upholding the commission’s intent requires a reinvestment in Indigenous models of social, cultural and emotional wellbeing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thalia Anthony receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Implementing the Don Dale royal commission’s recommendations will test the capacity to redress the ‘systemic and shocking failures’ it identified.Thalia Anthony, Associate Professor in Law, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/862232017-11-17T06:17:37Z2017-11-17T06:17:37ZDon Dale royal commission demands sweeping change – is there political will to make it happen?<p>The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory’s <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/Report.aspx">final report</a>, which was handed down on Friday, revealed <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/media-centre/Documents/Royal-Commission-Board-Enquiry-Media-release.pdf">“systemic and shocking failures”</a> in the territory’s youth justice and child protection systems.</p>
<p>The commission was triggered following <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/australias-shame-promo/7649462">ABC Four Corners’ broadcasting</a> of images of detainee Dylan Voller hooded and strapped to a restraint chair, as well as footage of children being stripped, punched and tear-gassed by guards at the Don Dale and Alice Springs youth detention centres.</p>
<p>The commission’s findings demonstrate the need for systemic change. However, the commission will not, in itself, bring about that change. Its capacity to make lasting change lies with the government implementing its recommendations.</p>
<h2>What did the commission find?</h2>
<p>The commission found that the NT youth detention centres were not fit for accommodating – let alone rehabilitating – children and young people. </p>
<p>It also found that detainees were subjected to regular, repeated and distressing mistreatment. This included verbal abuse, racist remarks, physical abuse, and humiliation. </p>
<p>There was a further failure to follow procedures and requirements under youth justice legislation. Children were denied basic human needs, and the system failed to comply with basic human rights standards and safeguards, including the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>. </p>
<p>The commission also found that the NT child protection system has failed to provide appropriate and adequate support to some young people to assist them to avoid prison.</p>
<p>Importantly, the commission found that isolation “continues to be used inappropriately, punitively and inconsistently”. Children in the high security unit:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… continue to be confined in a wholly inappropriate, oppressive, prison-like environment … in confined spaces with minimal out of cell time and little to do for long periods of time.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What did the commission recommend?</h2>
<p>Based on these findings, the commission recommended wide-ranging reforms to the youth justice and child protection systems. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, a central focus of the recommendations relate to detention. They ranged from closing the Don Dale centre to significant restrictions on the use of force, strip-searching and isolation, and banning the use of tear gas, spit hoods, and restraint chairs. </p>
<p>There is a focus on greater accountability for the use of detention through extending the Commissioner for Children and Young People’s monitoring role. Recommendations also cover health care (including mental health and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder screening), education, training, and throughcare services for children exiting detention. </p>
<p>Among its suite of proposed reforms, the commission recommended developing a ten-year strategy to tackle child protection and prevention of harm to children, and establishing an NT-wide network of centres to provide community services to families.</p>
<p>Youth justice reforms include improving the operation of bail to reduce the unnecessary use of custodial remand; expanding diversionary programs in rural and remote locations; and operating new models of secure detention, based on principles of trauma-informed practice. </p>
<p>Adequate and ongoing training and education for police, lawyers, youth justice officers, out-of-home-care staff and judicial officers in child and adolescent development is also recommended. </p>
<p>The commission also emphasised the importance of developing partnerships with Indigenous organisations and communities in the child protection and youth justice systems. Several organisations in written submissions to the commission identified the importance of appropriately resourcing community-controlled, and locally developed and led, programs for Indigenous young people. </p>
<h2>Increasing the age of criminal responsibility a good place to start</h2>
<p>One of the commission’s most significant recommendations is to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 years, and only allowing children under 14 to be sentenced to detention for serious offences. </p>
<p>If this recommendation were to be implemented it is likely to have far-reaching implications across Australia. Currently, <a href="http://cypp.unsw.edu.au/sites/ypp.unsw.edu.au/files/Cunneen%20(2017)%20Arguments%20for%20raising%20the%20minimum%20age%20of%20criminal%20responsibility.pdf">the minimum age</a> is ten years in all states and territories.</p>
<p>Of particular relevance to the commission is the adverse affect of a low minimum age of criminal responsibility on Indigenous children. </p>
<p>The majority of children under the age of 14 who come before Australian youth courts are Indigenous. In 2015-16, <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-justice-in-australia-2015-16/data">67% of children</a> placed in detention under the age of 14 were Indigenous. This concentration is even higher among those aged 12 or younger. </p>
<p>Nationally, 73% of children placed in detention and 74% of children placed on community-based supervision in 2015-16 <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-justice-in-australia-2015-16/data">were Indigenous</a>. </p>
<p>Raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility opens the door to responding to children’s needs without relying on criminalisation, given its short- and long-term negative impacts.</p>
<p>It enables a conversation about the best responses to children who often – as the commission’s findings acknowledged – have a range of issues. These can include trauma, mental health disorders and disability, coming from highly disadvantaged backgrounds, having spent time in out-of-home care, and – particularly among Indigenous children – being removed from their families and communities. </p>
<p>A positive outcome from the commission will require political will and leadership to respond effectively to broader systemic issues. Raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility is a good place to start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Russell is employed by the Community Restorative Centre, and is affiliated in a voluntary capacity with Glebe House and the Women's Justice Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Cunneen receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The Don Dale royal commission’s capacity to make lasting change lies with the government implementing its recommendations.Sophie Russell, Research Associate, UNSW SydneyChris Cunneen, Professor of Criminology, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/862062017-11-02T00:54:44Z2017-11-02T00:54:44ZPre-emptive policing is harmful and oppressive, and requires independent scrutiny<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191972/original/file-20171026-28039-18wzta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people are experiencing patterns of oppressive policing that are harmful to them, their families and the community.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Himbrechts</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For 17 years, police in New South Wales have run a program predicting and disrupting future offenders to reduce crime. But very little was known about the program, the Suspect Targeting Management Plan, before our <a href="http://www.yjc.org.au/resources/YJC-STMP-Report.pdf">new study</a> revealed children as young as ten have been targeted for intensive policing.</p>
<h2>What is the plan?</h2>
<p>The Suspect Targeting Management Plan is a proactive policing program that identifies and targets recidivists, as well as those who haven’t been convicted of offences but who police suspect to be at risk of committing future crimes.</p>
<p>The plan’s focus is said to be with the small number of repeat offenders who commit the largest volume of crimes. It relies on a risk assessment, in which a Local Area Command nominates a person against select risk criteria. Drawing on <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2016.1253695">algorithmic prediction</a>, an intelligence officer calculates a person’s future risk of offending and is allocated a category of extreme, high, medium or low risk.</p>
<p>Police in the area are then tasked with monitoring and intervening against the person. The plan’s targets are stopped in the street and asked what they are doing. People often are searched or visited at home and asked to present at the door.</p>
<p>The policy and the risk criteria it relies on are not publicly available and are exempt from Freedom of Information. A person on the plan can’t know why they are on it or how to get off it. The predictive assumptions about risk behind the plan and the data it relies on in selecting targets are not subject to scrutiny.</p>
<p>The policy applies to both adults and young people – including minors. There is also a particular type of plan for domestic violence offenders, which was <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/improving-nsw/premiers-priorities/reducing-domestic-violence-reoffending/">introduced in 2016</a>. Our study didn’t explore this group.</p>
<h2>How is it used?</h2>
<p>The Suspect Targeting Management Plan disproportionately targets young people, particularly Aboriginal people.</p>
<p>From the limited data we obtained from NSW Police under Freedom of Information for just ten Local Area Commands (there are 76 across NSW), we found that in 2014-15:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>48.8% of the total targets were people under 25;</p></li>
<li><p>23.5% of the total targets were under 18; and</p></li>
<li><p>44% of the total targets were Aboriginal people.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our case study research of 32 clients found young people on the plan with minor offending histories. These included shoplifting, graffiti, or drug possession. </p>
<p>Other young people in our study had committed more serious and persistent offences, like assault and aggravated break and enter. </p>
<p>The reality is that young people predominantly commit offences against property rather than the person.</p>
<h2>Racialised, oppressive and unlawful over-policing</h2>
<p>We found that young people are experiencing patterns of oppressive policing that are harmful to them, their families and the community. Policing under the Suspect Targeting Management Plan is particularly harmful in criminalising already overpoliced Indigenous young people.</p>
<p>The plan contributed to detrimental social outcomes for the young people in our study. Constantly being harassed by police is a barrier to having a normal life. The plan also puts extreme strain on family relationships. Many of the young people felt they couldn’t leave the house. </p>
<p>Young people on diversionary orders from the <a href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/austindlr19&div=18&g_sent=1&casa_token=&collection=journals">Children’s Court and Youth Koori Court</a> were simultaneously experiencing increased police contact through the plan. It has the foreseeable effect of increasing young people’s contact with the criminal justice system. It undermines key objectives across the criminal justice system for youth, including diversion, rehabilitation and therapeutic justice.</p>
<p>We found that several police searches of a young person on the plan were determined unlawful by the courts. </p>
<p>The plan is an administrative policy and doesn’t give police any additional legal powers. So, they need to have a reasonable suspicion <a href="https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/2002/103/part4/div1/sec21">before they can search</a> someone without a warrant. </p>
<p>Race, class and gender have always functioned as a proxy for reasonable suspicion. But the Suspect Targeting Management Plan has now formalised the police practice of targeting the usual suspects. </p>
<p>Critical policing studies have long debunked the myth that the law <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/law-in-policing-9780198264767?cc=au&lang=en&#">sets out the parameters</a> for police practice. The plan demonstrates more starkly that the police have other formulations that govern their work.</p>
<h2>Pre-emptive and disruptive, not ‘preventive’</h2>
<p>Tackling the structural causes of offending – social inequalities like unemployment and low incomes – alongside therapeutic programs for families, for example, are among recognised best practice in youth crime prevention. </p>
<p>There is no evidence that the aggressive use of police powers is a solution to the complex causes of offending. In this sense, the Suspect Targeting Management Plan is not “preventive”; it is aimed at the disruption of everyday life. It’s more accurately a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Pre-crime-Pre-emption-precaution-and-the-future/McCulloch-Wilson/p/book/9781138781696">pre-emptive technique</a> – acting as much on socioeconomic status and race as on the notion of future offending.</p>
<p>Our recommendations to NSW Police include removing children under 18 from the plan and to make the policy available to the public. We’ve asked the <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au">Law Enforcement Conduct Commission</a> to conduct a systemic review of the plan, for young people and for adults.</p>
<p>The unjustified secrecy around it has prevented appropriate, transparent, program evaluation and more thorough examination of the impact it is having on young people and police practice. </p>
<p>The plan’s operation is likely to be having harmful effects on young people, which are grounds for further investigation and external scrutiny.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vicki Sentas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children as young as ten have been targeted for intensive policing under the NSW Police’s secretive Suspect Targeting Management Plan.Vicki Sentas, Senior Lecturer in Law, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/819902017-08-13T21:11:14Z2017-08-13T21:11:14ZThe bad buildings scream – lessons from Don Dale and other failed institutions<p>It’s just over a year since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rethinking-youth-justice-there-are-alternatives-to-juvenile-detention-63329">Don Dale scandal</a> became public. A youth was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/07/25/4504895.htm">shown on ABC Four Corners</a> bound and in a spit mask. Within a few hours, a <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">royal commission</a> was initiated, and within days the Northern Territory centre was to be condemned. </p>
<p>Now the brief is out for a new centre – but word is, <a href="http://architectureau.com/articles/design-brief-for-new-darwin-youth-detention-centre-slammed/?utm_source=ArchitectureAU&utm_campaign=ec0c99a5cc-AAU_2017_07_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e3604e2a4a-ec0c99a5cc-41314117&mc_cid=ec0c99a5cc&mc_eid=00d901f802">it’s “a disgrace”</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An excerpt from the Four Corners report, Australia’s Shame, on July 26 2016.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An obsession with “function” – the patterns and protocols of management and care – dominates the designs of residential institutions that serve unwilling guests, such as prisons, detention centres and mental health facilities. The functional spaces assume people’s behaviour will remain the same regardless of the architecture. And so residential institutions end up as places where the business of managing people should be easy.</p>
<p>But people aren’t easy. When forced into an institutional residential setting, they come with baggage that can’t be checked in at the sally port (the gate). </p>
<p>The clients are products of diverse cultures, they have kin, they may have addictions and special needs. Some will be prone to <a href="http://strona.app.nazwa.pl/uploads/images/2014_16_4/5Golembiewski_ArchivesPP_4_2014.pdf">aggression or at risk of suicide</a> (or both). In Australia, about half have <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/prisoner-health/mental-health/">mental illness</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/good-mental-health-care-in-prisons-must-begin-and-end-in-the-community-40011">Good mental health care in prisons must begin and end in the community</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Much of the functional planning is designed to control this diversity and unruliness. But people generally don’t like to be controlled, especially if it means they can’t be with the people they love or contribute meaningfully to society. It’s hardly a surprise that facilities see bursts of violence.</p>
<h2>Tougher controls add to pressures</h2>
<p>If ever there’s an unplanned event with lasting consequences, the architecture is usually patched to prevent another similar event. This is usually very literal, such as putting in a layer of vandal-proof glass, CCTV, or some other invasive security measure. </p>
<p>These modifications rarely help, because they only intensify resentments and feelings of being controlled. Before too long, another incident is inevitable. </p>
<p>The final blow for a facility is usually when the public hears of an incident – <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-25/don-dale-detainees-to-be-housed-at-mental-health-facility/5694616">the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre</a> and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/half-of-parkville-youth-detention-centre-closed-because-of-rioting-20170109-gtobl4.html">Parkville Youth Justice Centre</a> in Victoria are recent cases in point. Remember, these are places that <em>unnecessarily</em> separate people from their loved ones and everything of importance – is an angry response really a surprise?</p>
<p>When a centre is being shut down, administrators frequently blame architecture: they say “it wasn’t fit for purpose”. Suddenly it’s the building that’s done wrong, not the people or protocols that gradually developed in it.</p>
<p>But the administrators may be right. <a href="https://theconversation.com/building-a-better-world-can-architecture-shape-behaviour-21541">Architecture can be very manipulative</a>; it can affect our behaviour and the choices we make. So why don’t designers anticipate behavioural problems when they’re designing a facility?</p>
<p>These problems arise because <em>as vulnerability increases, choice decreases</em>. When people are mentally ill, feel they’re oppressed, are emotionally overwrought or physically ill, their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26597102">brains begin to function differently</a>. Their capacity to choose how to react to any given circumstances is reduced to a set of learned and instinctive behaviours, however inappropriate these are to those circumstances. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In oppressive conditions, peope’s capacity to choose how to react to any given circumstances is greatly reduced, however inappropriate their behaviour might be.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Importantly, this same effect reduces the possibility of behavioural change and reform, which is meant to be the focus of the <em>corrections</em> system. And only this past week, this was revealed to be a <a href="https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/research-papers/ipa-research-finds-australia-falling-behind-world-criminal-justice-costs-results-2">serious and costly problem</a> for criminal justice in Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-imprisonment-in-australia-its-time-to-take-stock-38902">The state of imprisonment in Australia: it’s time to take stock</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>What’s worse is that <a href="http://www.urbandesignmentalhealth.com/journal2-psychosis.html">people with mental illness can become symptomatic</a> in bad environments. Only when people are in a state of robust mental health can they develop new, nuanced responses and adapt well to circumstances.</p>
<h2>There is a better way</h2>
<p>People who have studied this problem talk about congruency. It’s about “the good fit” between the person, their culture and the place: the physical layout, the things there are to do, the attitudes of staff, etc. </p>
<p>If the clients were all healthy, this wouldn’t be so important, because people can then adapt easily. But in mental health facilities all the clients have mental problems, and a high number in prisons too – whether diagnosed or not.</p>
<p>To provide for clients in residential institutional care, administrators first have to understand that all clients are vulnerable. Even if they’re tattooed and tough and might carry a shank knife; if they’re in a residential institution, they’re vulnerable.</p>
<p>It’s essential to treat humans with dignity. First up, that means that prison should never primarily be a punishment (it’s not meant to be under <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/GA-RESOLUTION/E_ebook.pdf">current United Nations rules</a> either). </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">Prisons policy is turning Australia into the second nation of captives</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>But beyond just abiding by the rules, it’s essential to provide for a meaningful existence. Different people and different cultures find meaning in different places, and it can be hard to provide for everyone. But that’s no excuse not to try.</p>
<p>Some universal values provide meaning for just about everyone. These can be expressed by making provision for family and for meaningful activity such as gardening, art, music, sport and religious expression. </p>
<p>Other provisions must be geared to local cultures. <a href="http://www.waikatodhb.health.nz/assets/news/Improving-mental-health-in-prisons.pdf">Te Kauwhata</a>, a secure mental health facility in New Zealand, has places for Maori clients to carve wood, based on the understanding that this cultural activity is important enough that they are equipped with dangerous carving tools.</p>
<p><a href="http://architectureau.com/articles/west-kimberley-regional-prison/">A prison in the Kimberley</a> provides wide, open spaces that are close to kin, and prisoners have opportunities to personalise their spaces.</p>
<p>Very few clients will be there for life. To maintain the competencies needed in the real world, it’s essential to shift the locus of control from staff to the clients. For this reason, the institution should promote trade in wholesome goods.</p>
<p>People should be encouraged to cook for each other and themselves, to do their own cleaning and to develop workplace and cultural skills such as sports development or learning musical instruments.</p>
<p>Until these basic concepts are routine and the reflexes of management are to look at opportunities to improve wellbeing, rather than making facilities harder and more segregated, social problems will remain at the heart of one scandal after another.</p>
<p>Remember, all buildings speak to us on a psychological level – but the bad ones scream.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-expected-reoffender-to-trusted-neighbour-why-we-should-rethink-our-prisons-60114">From expected reoffender to trusted neighbour: why we should rethink our prisons</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Golembiewski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Architecture can affect behaviour and the choices we make. The brief is out for a centre to replace the Don Dale facility, but word is, it’s ‘a disgrace’. We can do much better.Jan Golembiewski, Researcher, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/805142017-07-05T13:16:06Z2017-07-05T13:16:06ZFeltham ruling shows youth custody fails to meet needs of vulnerable children<p>By placing a 16-year-old child with mental health issues in isolation for a prolonged period of time, Feltham Young Offender Institution in London breached his human rights and contravened prison rules, the High Court has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/04/feltham-yoi-high-court-human-rights">ruled</a>.</p>
<p>The ruling came a few days after Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons said Feltham A – the part of the institution for boys aged 15 to 18 – was “not safe for either staff or boys” in a <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/06/Feltham-A-Web-2017.pdf">report</a> published after an unannounced inspection. Parts of the institution were described as “deeply troubling” with issues of violence, uses of restraint techniques and isolation deemed to be serious causes of concern. </p>
<p>Named AB in legal documentation, the child’s solitary confinement for <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/04/boy-16-wins-human-rights-ruling-prolonged-solitary-confinement/">more than 100 days</a> was <a href="https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/oa-ab-a-child-v-sosfj-and-others.pdf">ruled</a> on July 4 to have contravened Article 8 of the <a href="http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf">European Convention on Human Rights</a> – the right to a private and family life. He <a href="http://howardleague.org/news/felthamsolitaryconfinementhighcourtjudgment/">was</a> locked in his cell for in excess of 22 hours a day, for more than 15 days in a row. </p>
<p>The judge, Justice Ouseley, explained that this denied the child the opportunity to an adequate education and to socialise with other inmates. But he dismissed the argument that the boy’s treatment was inhuman and degrading. The Howard League for Penal Reform, a charity whose legal team represents the boy, is <a href="http://howardleague.org/news/felthamsolitaryconfinementhighcourtjudgment/">now seeking</a> to appeal this part of the ruling. </p>
<p>Despite the child’s challenging behaviour he deserves to have his rights respected and to access appropriate support for his mental health issues and special educational needs. However, the High Court ruling also failed to recognise his need for appropriate support. </p>
<p>Putting distressed children in cells for more than 100 days <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-prisons-child-inmates-solitary-confinement-un-torture-rules-young-offenders-institutes-break-jail-a7591781.html">only exacerbates</a> any pre-existing mental health problems, leaving them vulnerable to traumatic stress. The punishment is the <a href="http://scyj.org.uk/2017/07/scyj-responds-to-hmi-prisons-report-on-feltham-prison/">loss of liberty</a> and children should not be doubly punished by enduring ill treatment in poor conditions. </p>
<h2>Unmet needs</h2>
<p>The child <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/francescrook/status/882250250777493506/photo/1">had</a> complex health and social care needs and adverse childhood experiences. But these were disregarded, with security concerns trumping the need for appropriate care – as it often does in custodial settings. He had attachment difficulties following a traumatic childhood that involved being subject to emotional and physical abuse. He suffered from bereavement and had witnessed domestic violence. He was on the child protection register and had had a number of residential placements. The boy was also diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder. </p>
<p>There is a larger problem here: a disproportionate number of children in the youth justice system have experienced trauma. <a href="http://www.beyondyouthcustody.net/justice-system-retraumatising-vulnerable-young-people/">Research</a> has shown that 91% of young people who have committed violent offences had experienced abuse or loss. The prevalence of such trauma in custody can result in children becoming violent, committing sexual offences and misusing substances. Being in solitary confinement <a href="https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Unlocking-Potential.pdf">can also</a> trigger self-harm and intensify the symptoms of trauma. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176877/original/file-20170705-29998-kpmi2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176877/original/file-20170705-29998-kpmi2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176877/original/file-20170705-29998-kpmi2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176877/original/file-20170705-29998-kpmi2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176877/original/file-20170705-29998-kpmi2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176877/original/file-20170705-29998-kpmi2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176877/original/file-20170705-29998-kpmi2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many young people in detention have a history of childhood trauma.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Access to support</h2>
<p>Young offender institutions and prisons generally do not have the right provisions, expertise and resources in place to support people who need to be cared for: an issue that has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/05/prison-funding-cuts-are-putting-vulnerable-prisoners-at-risk">intensified</a> following the onset of the government’s austerity programme. </p>
<p>Children with learning disabilities <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/joepublic/2008/dec/03/learning-disability-prison-learning-difficulties">are known</a> to be disadvantaged in prisons and to be more susceptible to bullying, segregation and depression. They can often struggle to follow written instructions relating to prison rules, to complete paperwork, or to make doctors’ appointments. It can be difficult for these children to comply and comprehend what is expected of them. Support tends to be one-size-fits-all – tailored treatment to individuals with learning disabilities is <a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2009/02/27/people-with-learning-disabilities-in-prison-2/">seldom offered</a>. </p>
<p>Although the rights of children in custody ought not to lag behind the rights of children generally, child prisoners are particularly vulnerable to having their rights abused and should be safeguarded. The Feltham young offender case highlights a grim aspect of youth custody and is yet another indicator of the crisis afflicting prisons in which understaffing, <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-wonder-prisons-are-getting-more-violent-theyre-full-to-the-brim-65921">overcrowding</a>, lack of training and high staff turnover are creating a dire situation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Creaney is affiliated with social justice charity Peer Power </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A judge has ruled that placing a 16-year-old in solitary confinement breached his human rights.Sean Creaney, Lecturer in Psychosocial Analysis of Offending Behaviour, Edge Hill UniversityMichael Richards, Lecturer in Applied Health and Social Care, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/783982017-07-03T01:47:14Z2017-07-03T01:47:14ZLong ignored, adolescent family violence needs our attention<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172111/original/file-20170604-20605-w26kkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Adolescent family violence has detrimental effects on the health and wellbeing of families, and is surrounded by stigma and shame.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/victoria-leads-the-way-on-family-violence-but-canberra-needs-to-lift-its-game-74036">Family violence</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-could-alleviate-its-youth-justice-crisis-by-importing-the-right-ideas-from-the-us-74535">youth justice</a> have been subjected to an intense focus in Australia in the past year. Reviews have revealed the failure to provide effective responses to these issues. Government responses to family violence have emphasised the importance of perpetrator accountability, while in the youth justice field recent reforms have seen a toughening of legal responses.</p>
<p><a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/investigating-adolescent-family-violence/">Adolescent family violence</a> has implications in both of these areas. However, it has been the subject of limited inquiry.</p>
<p>Adolescent family violence is violence used by young people against family members. Most often, it refers to violence occurring within the home. </p>
<p>It is distinct because the adolescent requires ongoing care even when violent, which mean responses used in other cases of family violence can’t readily be applied. It has detrimental effects on the health and wellbeing of families, and is surrounded by stigma and shame.</p>
<h2>Extent and impact</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/family-violence-data-portal/family-violence-data-dashboard/childrens-court">Data from the Melbourne Children’s Court</a> show that between July 2011 and June 2016, there were 6,228 applications made for a family violence intervention order where the respondent was 17 years or younger. There were 4,379 cases involving a male adolescent, and 1,849 cases involving a female adolescent.</p>
<p>In 45 cases, the respondent was aged ten-to-11-years-old. In more than half the cases, the affected family member was the female parent of the adolescent.</p>
<p>Existing <a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/briefing-paper-1-general.pdf">international</a> and <a href="http://www.dvrcv.org.au/knowledge-centre/our-blog/coordinated-response-adolescent-violence-home">Australian</a> research suggests that adolescent family violence is largely unreported. Consequently, rates of recorded adolescent family violence are likely to underestimate its extent. There are complex reasons for reluctance to report. They include parental shame and self-blame, fear of consequences for the adolescent, and an inability to locate an appropriate service.</p>
<p>Our research into adolescent family violence, which includes <a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/research-recruitment-have-you-experienced-adolescent-family-violence/">an anonymous open survey</a> of those affected, reveals a wide range of abusive behaviours. These extend well beyond physical violence and include coercive and controlling behaviours, property damage, and economic abuse.</p>
<p>One participant described:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Having doors broken in my home either through continuous banging, punching or throwing bricks through the glass. Having a teenager scream and yell at me, swear and belittle me. Being spat on. Having a teenager stand over me and using threatening behaviour to get what he wanted such as money or other items of value.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The effects are severe. People described “walking on eggshells” in their own homes, experiences of depression and stress, and social isolation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t invite people into my home because of the damage and because my home environment is very unpredictable. I have lost a lot of confidence in my abilities and feel like a failure as a parent. I don’t get much sleep as I am constantly worried for my son’s wellbeing.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Recognising vulnerability and complex needs</h2>
<p>Adolescents who use violence in the home often have complex needs and may have experienced family violence themselves. Parents described their adolescents as suffering from substance abuse problems, depression and anxiety, and mental health and intellectual disability disorders.</p>
<p>As one parent described:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My 13-year-old son had major depression and anxiety combined with poly substance abuse. Whenever we tried to challenge him even slightly about his drug use or general behaviour, he would get extremely angry – acting in a threatening manner by standing over us and yelling, hurling abuse and saying horrible derogatory things about us, punching holes in walls, slamming doors until they broke.</p>
<p>All of this was very traumatic and sometimes quite terrifying.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another recognised her son’s needs, but struggled with the impacts:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My son is 13. He has Asperger’s Syndrome and experiences overwhelming sensory overload with his body flooded with adrenalin. He deals with this by fight or flight, the default being fight. Mostly this involves lashing out with his fists, but he has attempted to use weapons, such as a knife. This only happens when he is overloaded but is frightening nonetheless.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The criminal justice system is not the answer</h2>
<p>Recognition of the complex needs of adolescents who use violence in the home suggests that, while family violence committed in any context must not be excused, there is a need to respond to this particular form of it – where possible – outside of the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>Our research is revealing that families who have experienced adolescent family violence and those working with them feel the criminal justice system is not appropriate.</p>
<p>In contrast to cases of intimate partner violence, where separation of the parties involved and obtaining an intervention order or court outcome may be a priority to ensure safety, parents often want to maintain the family unit in adolescent family violence cases, and are acutely aware of the stigma and consequences of criminalising their child’s behaviour.</p>
<p>Survey respondents describe the reasons why they had chosen not to contact police. One mother commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We were worried that if we called the police things would escalate more … We also thought that if we called the police we would completely lose any remaining trust or relationship with our son.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The small number of survey respondents who did contact police felt such interactions were unhelpful. One mother said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On each occasion, I have felt that the situation was futile. Through calling the police [our son] felt like I have betrayed him … it did not result in an outcome where our family got any support or help.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The need to move away from criminal justice responses is important to emphasise in the current political climate, where youths are increasingly facing more punitive consequences for using violence. </p>
<p>Recognition of the complex needs of all those impacted – including adolescents who use violence, and their parents, carers and siblings who are victimised – reinforces the need to look beyond punitive justice responses in tackling this form of family violence.</p>
<h2>New knowledge and new specialist responses</h2>
<p>Victoria’s <a href="http://www.rcfv.com.au/">Royal Commission into Family Violence</a> found that there is a limited understanding of adolescent family violence among family violence specialists, youth and family services, and in the justice system.</p>
<p><a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/investigating-adolescent-family-violence/">Our research</a> aims to contribute to urgently needed knowledge about adolescent family violence’s nature, extent and impacts. Across Australia there is a need to better understand this complex form of family violence, and to develop specialist knowledge and multi-agency responses.</p>
<p>Effective responses will require government commitment in terms of specialist funding and the resourcing of new forms of integrated service responses.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>If you have experienced adolescent family violence, please consider sharing your experience with us via our <a href="https://monash.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0Uo7pxG8bRS2d3D">anonymous online survey</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Fitz-Gibbon is a member of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Research Focus Program (<a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/">http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/</a>). Kate receives funding for family violence related research from the Australian Research Council, ANROWS, and Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>JaneMaree Maher is a member of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Research Focus Program (<a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/">http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/</a>). JaneMaree receives funding for family violence related research from the Australian Research Council, ANROWS, and Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jude McCulloch is a member of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Research Focus Program (<a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/">http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/gender-and-family-violence/</a>). Jude receives funding for family violence related research from the Australian Research Council, ANROWS, and Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to this she is a member of the Victorian Government Ministerial Taskforce - Prevention of family violence and other forms of violence against women </span></em></p>Research is revealing that both families who have experienced adolescent family violence and those working with them feel the criminal justice system is not an appropriate way to respond to it.Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Monash UniversityJaneMaree Maher, Professor, Centre for Women's Studies & Gender Research, Sociology, Monash UniversityJude McCulloch, Professor of Criminology, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763922017-05-16T02:31:56Z2017-05-16T02:31:56ZHow resilience can break the link between a ‘bad’ childhood and the youth justice system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167644/original/file-20170503-4096-181ute9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children currently in – or who have histories with – residential care services are more likely to have contact with the justice system.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most young people in the youth justice system have been found to come from “troubled” backgrounds. However, many people with similar backgrounds don’t ever end up in youth justice services.</p>
<p>Knowing why people with troubled childhoods may be more likely to engage in criminal activity is necessary to inform the development of effective prevention and early intervention initiatives.</p>
<h2>What is ‘a bad childhood’?</h2>
<p>The concept of a “bad childhood” is used a lot. </p>
<p>Conventional wisdom is that it is used to inform sentencing, with some believing it’s used as an excuse for lenience. Others are more sympathetic to the plight of the disadvantaged, arguing that those in prison are essentially hapless victims of circumstance.</p>
<p>But just what constitutes a bad childhood? The 2015-16 <a href="http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/975942/Youth-Parole-Board-Annual-Report-2015-16.pdf">Victorian Youth Parole Board annual report</a> provides some possible insights. Using data from a snapshot survey of 176 young people in custody, it revealed:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>45% had been previously subject to a child protection order;</p></li>
<li><p>63% had experienced child abuse and/or neglect;</p></li>
<li><p>30% had a current mental health issue;</p></li>
<li><p>90% had offended while under the influence of alcohol and/or other drugs;</p></li>
<li><p>38% had a parent or sibling who had been imprisoned; and</p></li>
<li><p>62% had been suspended or expelled from school.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These statistics are most startling at the pointy end of the youth justice system. Research <a href="http://www.smartjustice.org.au/cb_pages/files/leaving_care_youth_justice_phase_3_final_report.pdf">has revealed</a> that while one in ten people on a youth supervision order have had contact with child protection services, the figure increases to one in two for those who have received a custodial sentence.</p>
<p>A similar pattern is apparent for children in contact with child protection services. Children currently in – or who have histories with – residential care services <a href="http://www.smartjustice.org.au/cb_pages/files/leaving_care_youth_justice_phase_3_final_report.pdf">are more likely</a> to have contact with the justice system than children who are not subject to residential care.</p>
<p>A particular challenge is that when young people report the kind of experiences listed above, they are more likely to become disengaged from meaningful daily activities and increasingly disconnected from family. Drug use becomes <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319336749#aboutAuthors">more available and appealing</a>. Research demonstrates these are strong markers for criminal activity. </p>
<h2>Learning resilience</h2>
<p>Resilience is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jane_Burns3/publication/10931288_Adolescent_Resilience_A_Concept_Analysis/links/00b7d521de377db8fa000000/Adolescent-Resilience-A-Concept-Analysis.pdf">a process of adaptation</a>. As we are exposed to risks, threats or trauma, we can learn to adapt to it – provided we have have adequate supports in place, such as safe and secure housing and feeling stable in other aspects of our lives. </p>
<p>One of the <a href="https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ijcyfs/article/view/12431/3767">most significant predictors</a> of a person’s resilience is the number of positive adult role models they have in their life. While every young person benefits from these kind of relationships, disadvantaged and/or disaffected young people have been found to benefit much more.</p>
<p>Importantly here, resilience is a learned trait that can be fostered. Studies have shown that children can be very resilient, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=0WlDAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=resilience+war+young+people&source=bl&ots=VjAXsV9Tz-&sig=jOzB8Zqb-2d5i7PiCutl_XgxK7Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjTnq7y-tDTAhWJm5QKHTHzAhwQ6AEIMzAD#v=onepage&q=resilience%20war%20young%20people&f=false">even in the most adverse situations</a>.
However, resilience is constrained by the environment in which they are in. Michael Ungar refers to this as the “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21219271">social ecology of resilience</a>”, where context can affect the <a href="http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781461405856">positive outcomes of adversity</a>.</p>
<p>It is typical for a young person to face a degree of hardship during childhood or adolescence. Provided this is supported, and in the context of an otherwise “healthy” life, the young person will probably be fine. <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/resilience-still-useful-concept-when-working-child/what-resilience">Research indicates</a> that exposure to some adversity helps to build resilience.</p>
<p>However, if we are exposed to a traumatic event but don’t have safety, security and support, we may suffer significant negative impacts – such as psychological impairment – rather than simply bouncing back.</p>
<h2>What we now know</h2>
<p>Historically, we have been focused on identifying risk factors for criminality. The logical premise of doing so has been that being able to identify these provides the necessary information to target prevention and early intervention initiatives. </p>
<p>But the subsequent assumption was that removing the young person from the risk factor was necessary for a positive outcome. The dilemma is that many of the risk factors are fixed or “static”, and therefore not necessarily amenable to change. </p>
<p>For instance, being raised in residential care is a risk factor for criminality. But we cannot suddenly undo this, or provide a loving a supportive family environment in which the young person can thrive. Protective factors – or a lack thereof – potentially <a href="http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1053775">shed more light</a> on who might be most vulnerable to a range of negative health and justice-related outcomes. </p>
<p>Some interventions are now <a href="https://www.crimesolutions.gov/ProgramDetails.aspx?ID=137">premised on the belief</a> that increasing protective factors does much to ameliorate the impacts of this risk, and decrease the appeal of drug use or crime.</p>
<p>Significantly, the social environment an individual is in, both prior to and following an adverse life event, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jane_Burns3/publication/10931288_Adolescent_Resilience_A_Concept_Analysis/links/00b7d521de377db8fa000000/Adolescent-Resilience-A-Concept-Analysis.pdf">appears to be more influential</a> in the development of resilience than the specific event itself.</p>
<p>The demographies of young people in prison aren’t stories of a single childhood adversity. Intergenerational crime and poverty, parental substance abuse, mental health issues, early school disengagement, family breakdown, child abuse, domestic violence and experiences of homelessness are all typical and indicative of these young people’s stories. </p>
<p>No single event leads to crime. Rather, many traumas and their accumulated effects, compounded by a lack of protective factors, contribute to why some people are “less resilient”, and also more susceptible to commit crime.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76392/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Daley is a member of the Women's Correctional Services Advisory Committee. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Thomas recently received funding from the Children's Court of Victoria as part of a review of a youth diversion program. </span></em></p>Knowing why people with troubled childhoods may be more likely to engage in criminal activity is necessary to inform the development of effective prevention and early intervention initiatives.Kathryn Daley, Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, RMIT UniversityStuart Thomas, Professor in Justice and Legal Studies, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/756182017-04-05T19:25:42Z2017-04-05T19:25:42ZYoung people’s voices are all but invisible in the Don Dale royal commission’s interim report<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163971/original/image-20170404-5702-14zq5fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The royal commission has heard evidence from more than 60 witnesses, including those in youth detention in the Northern Territory.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lucy Hughes Jones</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been just over eight months since <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/07/25/4504895.htm">the screening</a> of images of Dylan Voller shackled and hooded in a restraint chair, unprovoked bashing of children by prison guards, and young boys being gassed in Northern Territory youth detention. The national outcry prompted the announcement of <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/">a royal commission</a> to investigate the issues.</p>
<p>The commission’s <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/about-us/Pages/letters-patent.aspx">terms of reference</a> extended to the NT child protection system in recognition of the many kids who journey through both this <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129554445&tab=2">and the youth detention system</a>. However, these did not make reference to the cultural needs of Indigenous young people, who make up <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-indigenous-kids-in-detention-in-the-nt-in-the-first-place-63257">the overwhelming proportion of children</a> in these systems.</p>
<p>Despite expectations, the commission’s much-anticipated <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/about-us/Documents/RCNT-Interim-report.pdf">interim report</a>, released last week, did not deliver any findings or make any recommendations. Nor did it reflect young people’s personal stories.</p>
<h2>Interim report lacks recommendations</h2>
<p>Since August 2016, the commission has heard evidence from more than 60 witnesses, including those in youth detention in the NT. Many were also in the child protection system. </p>
<p>It has also visited youth detention centres in the NT, held meetings with people from Indigenous organisations in remote communities, and looked to other jurisdictions for guidance on best practice.</p>
<p>The commission’s interim report was highly anticipated for two reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>First, because of the concerns expressed by <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/Documents/evidence-2016/evidence12december/Exh-050-001.pdf">young people</a> appearing before the commission that <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/Documents/evidence-2017/evidence24march/Exh-159-001.pdf">detention centres</a> and out-of-home care facilities are <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/Documents/evidence-2017/evidence13march/Exh-068-001.pdf">traumatic</a> – and urgent action is needed to <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/Documents/evidence-2017/evidence13march/Exh-067-001.pdf">change practices</a> and <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/Documents/evidence-2017/evidence13march/Exh-065-001.pdf">remove children</a> from these institutions and <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/Documents/evidence-2017/evidence23march/Exh-139-001.pdf">into families and the community</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>Second, the since-elected <a href="http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2016/12/15/young-offenders-need-action-sooner--gunner.html">NT Labor government</a> has refrained from making any substantive changes to youth detention or child protection until the commission’s findings are handed down. In the meantime, children in the NT continue to be sent to youth detention facilities <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129559053">at increasing rates</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The report’s failure to deliver any findings or make any recommendations is a far cry from the approach of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Notwithstanding ongoing investigations, its interim report outlined detailed recommendations that <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol1/2.html">precipitated immediate reforms</a>. </p>
<p>Even the recent visit of the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, produced a <a href="http://un.org.au/2017/04/03/end-of-mission-press-conference-and-end-of-mission-statement-by-the-un-special-rapporteur-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples-victoria-tauli-corpuz-on-her-visit-to-australia/">preliminary report</a>. It had recommendations such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>increasing the age of criminal responsibility;</p></li>
<li><p>providing children with dignity and respect in detention;</p></li>
<li><p>supporting Indigenous community-led diversion; and </p></li>
<li><p>greater engagement with Indigenous families and communities in decision-making processes around child protection.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The commission did outline some interim observations. These included that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a strong perception that the system of detention in the Northern Territory is failing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That youth detention is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… likely to leave children and young people more damaged than when they entered.</p>
<p>… punitive, not rehabilitative.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That the centres are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… harsh, bleak and not in keeping with modern standards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The youth justice and child protection systems in the NT are inextricably linked.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Children’s voices are missing</h2>
<p>The commission’s <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/Pages/transcripts-and-exhibits.aspx">transcripts and exhibits</a> are replete with young people’s experiences and recommendations for change – told in their own words. However, its interim report did not reflect this.</p>
<p>In contrast, the <a href="http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/about-us/our-reports/interim-report-html">interim report</a> of the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had an <a href="http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/8fcb1078-a5ca-4750-ad24-052452f15a58/Volume-2">entire volume</a> dedicated to the personal stories and poetry of abuse survivors across various institutional settings. </p>
<p>Research by <a href="https://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/services/Download/mq:55401/SOURCE1">Holly Doel-Mackaway</a> demonstrates the importance of engaging Indigenous young people in decision-making on matters that affect them. Her research in relation to the NT Intervention found Indigenous young people had informed views about the policy, but that their voices were not included in the decision-making.</p>
<p>The NT royal commission’s interim report opens with coverage of statistics on rates of youth incarceration and child protection. These statistics may paint a picture of a systemic problem. However, they also run the risk of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-honour-the-humanity-of-every-person-who-dies-in-custody-57272">dehumanising young people’s experiences</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternative.ac.nz/content/who-are-experts-here-recognition-aboriginal-women-and-community-workers-research-and-beyond">Juanita Sherwood and others</a> emphasise the importance of storytelling in conveying the experiences of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system and in effecting change. The stories told to the commission convey the pain from:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>weeks spent in isolation cells;</p></li>
<li><p>young girls being forcibly stripped by male officers;</p></li>
<li><p>random attacks by officers;</p></li>
<li><p>punitive restraints; and </p></li>
<li><p>there being no avenues of support when these children were at the mercy of youth detention officers. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Dylan Voller <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/Pages/hearings/2016/12-December-2016-Public-hearing.aspx">gave evidence</a> that while he was hooded in his restraint chair for hours he thought:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… there’s no-one in there, no responsible person that could have – that would have said, “That’s enough”, that, “We need to get him out of that restraint chair, he has been in there for too long.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition to the harm in youth detention and child protection placements, stories have also expressed the benefits of cultural programs and the need for Indigenous community-run programs. </p>
<p>These stories, from both children and elders, are lost in a narrative that focuses on institutions. Yet they are critical for informing change that recognises the vital role of family, community and country in Indigenous young people’s lives.</p>
<p>Young people who have given evidence have expressed disappointment at the interim report’s limited scope, which Voller has <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2017/04/04/there-needs-be-criminal-investigation-voller-gives-first-interview-after-royal">publicly articulated</a>. For him, the detention conditions were not only punitive, as the commission’s report described them, but unjustifiably violent.</p>
<p>The final report, which is due on August 1, will be the next opportunity to dignify the young people whose suffering hastened the inquiry. </p>
<p>This report must not only make findings and recommendations that recognise the harm inflicted on them and promote reparations, accountability and a shift in the approach to youth detention and child protection in the NT, but also be a platform to convey the words of these young people whose voices were silenced for too long.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thalia Anthony receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She has previously received funding from the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration and the Criminology Research Council.</span></em></p>The NT youth justice royal commission’s interim report did not deliver any findings or make any recommendations. Nor did it reflect young people’s personal stories.Thalia Anthony, Associate Professor in Law, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/745352017-03-23T19:14:24Z2017-03-23T19:14:24ZAustralia could alleviate its youth justice crisis by importing the right ideas from the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161446/original/image-20170320-6109-10o082g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Riots have hit youth detention centres in both Australia and the US.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There continues to be a barrage of bad news coming out about juvenile justice systems in Australia and the US. But rather than temporary crackdowns or cosmetic fixes, officials in both countries should enact permanent solutions that replace large and ineffective youth prisons with a safer, more decent alternative.</p>
<p>In Australia, a royal commission to investigate conditions in the Northern Territory’s juvenile detention facilities <a href="http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/northern-territory-royal-commission-hears-youth-detention-guard-allegedly-sexually-harassed-inmates/news-story/8f342856b3a1ad2fd042281f13d442a8">continues</a>. The inquiry was called after staff at the Don Dale centre were <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-25/four-corners-evidence-of-kids-tear-gas-in-don-dale-prison/7656128">captured on film</a> brutally abusing inmates. </p>
<p>In the US, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/kalief-browder-1993-2015">Kalief Browder</a>, incarcerated at age 16 in New York City’s Rikers Island jail, was filmed being beaten by guards and other inmates. He would spend two out of three years of his incarceration in solitary confinement without being brought to trial. After this, in 2015, he committed suicide, prompting US President Barack Obama to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-bans-solitary-confinement-for-juveniles-in-federal-prisons/2016/01/25/056e14b2-c3a2-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html?utm_term=.3efdbc9ac4d7">ban solitary confinement</a> in federal juvenile facilities.</p>
<p>And riots by detained youth <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-youth-justice-centre-hit-by-more-unrest-after-tumultuous-weekend-20161113-gsoh3j.html">in Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.scnow.com/news/state/article_3996aea0-1ceb-11e6-b471-a7f0594cb696.html">in the US</a> have caused officials to transfer them to adult prisons.</p>
<h2>Washington DC’s once-broken system</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/programs/criminaljustice/research-publications/executive-sessions/escommunitycorrections/publications/the-future-of-youth-justice">Research</a> I co-authored reported that atrocities in juvenile facilities are no anomaly. Between 1970 and 2015, we found evidence of systemic or recurring maltreatment in all but five American states’ youth prisons. </p>
<p>One out of eight youth in detention surveyed by the US Department of Justice in 2012 <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svjfry12.pdf">reported being sexually assaulted</a> in lock-up in the previous year. And the Associated Press surveyed every agency detaining youth in the US in 2007, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR2008030200927.html">uncovering 13,000 allegations</a> of abuse in facilities housing 46,000 juveniles.</p>
<p>When I took over Washington DC’s juvenile justice agency in 2005, it was a Dickensian nightmare. </p>
<p>Staff were routinely assaulting inmates. Kids were locked in their cells for so long without respite that they urinated or defecated in them. They complained of rats and cockroaches crawling on them at night. Sexual assaults and pressuring was evident between staff and inmates, and among staff.</p>
<p>A staff member was so regularly selling drugs to inmates that they tested positive for marijuana more often after they had been in the facility for a month than whent hey were taken in.</p>
<p>Every person committed to juvenile corrections in Washington over the five years I ran that system was from a minority background. Likewise, <a href="https://correctionalservices.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/238198/Review-of-the-Northern-Territory-Youth-Detention-System-January-2015.pdf">more than 95%</a> of juveniles in detention in the NT are Aboriginal.</p>
<h2>Change brings results</h2>
<p>Rather than replace my ageing, 208-bed facility (whose population often exceeded 250) with a larger one, my department and Washington’s leaders went in a different direction. We created a range of community programs for those who did not belong in locked custody, which ended up being most of them. </p>
<p>For the handful who did need to be confined, we dramatically downsized our facility to 60 beds, and went from trying to extinguish youths’ weaknesses through a punitive approach to building on their strengths. We did this by providing a range of education, work, volunteer, arts and athletic opportunities.</p>
<p>Washington is not alone in taking this tack. From 2001 to 2013, there was a <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/multimedia/data-visualizations/2015/juvenile-commitment-rate-drops-53-percent">53% decline</a> in the number of young people locked up in the US. During this time, one-third of all US juvenile facilities – and two-thirds of all facilities with more than 200 beds – <a href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/declines-in-youth-commitments-and-facilities-in-the-21st-century/">were closed</a>.</p>
<p>Several jurisdictions – like <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/ocpa/cms/files/criminal-justice/research-publications/ntcc_the_future_of_youth_justice.pdf">New York City, Missouri</a> and <a href="https://www.educationdevelopmenttrust.com/%7E/media/EDT/Reports/Research/2013/r-improving-outcomes-2013.pdf">Auckland in New Zealand</a> – have moved away from incarcerating juveniles in large, distant, prison-like facilities to smaller, more homelike facilities near their homes.</p>
<p>The downsizing of youth corrections in the US has been accomplished while still maintaining public safety.</p>
<p>After a horrific sex abuse scandal was uncovered in Texas, <a href="https://csgjusticecenter.org/youth/publications/closer-to-home/">the state</a> reduced youth incarceration by 38% in six years, closed eight facilities, and saved US$150 million. It shifted $50 million of those savings to community programming, and experienced a 49% decline in youth arrests.</p>
<p>Likewise, Ohio <a href="http://jjohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Bring-Youth-Home-Report-11.25.15.pdf">reduced youth incarceration by 47%</a> between 1997 and 2013. It reallocated savings into community-based programs as alternatives to confinement. During this time, juvenile arrests dropped by 65%.</p>
<p>The state-by-state innovations we examined recognised that the most effective way to create safer communities is to ensure that young people are equipped with the skills they need to reintegrate back into the community – reserving detention as a last resort.</p>
<p>Australia has had its own successes in this regard. Victoria <a href="https://www.liv.asn.au/Staying-Informed/LIJ/LIJ/March-2017/Lawyers-fear-youth-crackdown">previously led the way</a> with a humane and effective approach to youth justice, steering young people away from detention and towards rehabilitative and restorative solutions.</p>
<p>But now, Victoria’s officials are <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-06/parkville-youth-justice-to-be-shut-down/8243448">poised to build</a> a massive, 224-bed youth prison in suburban Melbourne. The millions that will be poured into a failed institutional approach will likely produce negative public safety outcomes and sap funds that could be spent on more successful alternatives.</p>
<p>The combination of chronic institutional atrocities and widespread success reducing youth incarceration means large, prison-like facilities must be closed in favour of a range of in-home programs and support for youth, and small, home-like local facilities for the few who must be detained. </p>
<p>As Australian officials grapple with the challenges of their youth justice system, they must eschew youth imprisonment and build on their system’s many successes that have led to low re-offending and incarceration rates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent Schiraldi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian jurisdictions should enact permanent solutions to juvenile justice crises that replace large and ineffective youth prisons with a safer, more decent alternative.Vincent Schiraldi, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/676812016-11-11T14:24:09Z2016-11-11T14:24:09ZSpalding murders must not be used to justify more punitive responses to young offenders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145469/original/image-20161110-25066-d8y5mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tributes left to Elizabeth Edwards and her daughter Katie, murdered in April 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Radburn/PA Wire</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two teenagers convicted of stabbing and smothering to death a mother and daughter in their own home in Spalding, Lincolnshire <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/10/teenagers-jailed-for-at-least-20-years-for-spalding-murders-elizabeth-katie-edwards">have been sentenced</a> to life in prison. The extreme nature of the sentence – which means the two will not be eligible for parole for 20 years – reflects the severity of the offence. </p>
<p>But the two perpetrators were 14 years of age at the time of the crime – and the sentence, combined with the legal and media response to the crime, does little to reflect the perpetrators’ relative immaturity, irresponsibility or lack of moral and cognitive development. </p>
<p>During the sentencing, the judge, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-lincolnshire-37929771?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=58248c62e4b05d511bb329ad%26Grotesque%20and%20chilling:%20Judge%20on%20Spalding%20murders%26&ns_fee=0#post_58248c62e4b05d511bb329ad">described</a> the killing of Elizabeth and Katie Edwards as “grotesque” and “chilling” and said that it was “a terrible crime with few parallels in modern criminal history”. </p>
<p>Yet the reaction to Spalding case has similarities to the 1993 abduction, torture and murder of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1993/nov/02/bulger.tomsharratt">two-year-old James Bulger</a> in Liverpool. His murder, committed by two ten-year-old boys, caused public outrage and the perpetrators, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, were demonised by politicians and the media – branded “nasty” and “evil”. John Major, the prime minister at the time, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/major-on-crime-condemn-more-understand-less-1474470.html">insisted</a> that society should “condemn a little more and understand a little less”. The Bulger murder prompted both the media and government to argue that Britain was living through a “<a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/youth-and-crime/book241450">crisis of childhood</a>” – based on a perceived breakdown of moral and social order.</p>
<p>The print media and politicians have historically <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Young-People-Crime-and-Justice-2nd-Edition/Hopkins-Burke/p/book/9781138776623">misrepresented youth crime</a> by distorting the reality of violent behaviour – making serious crimes in which children kill children seem more frequent and widespread than they actually are.</p>
<p>The danger now is that the horrific Spalding murders, like the Bulger murder before them, may be hijacked to service political interest and media agendas. But it would be wrong to use this highly atypical offence to justify the increased criminalisation and demonisation of children who offend. </p>
<h2>After James Bulger</h2>
<p>Distortion and sensationalising of youth crime has significantly influenced the direction of youth justice policy, and has been employed in a post-hoc way to <a href="http://crj.sagepub.com/content/10/2/155.abstract">validate existing policy ideas</a>. For example, the murder of James Bulger led the age of criminal responsibility to be lowered to ten, in line with the ages of Venables and Thompson. Michael Howard, the Conservative home secretary at the time, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1099-0860.1997.tb00013.x/abstract">asserted</a> that young offenders: “will no longer be able to use age as an excuse for immunity from effective punishment”. </p>
<p>The result of this misrepresentation of the scale of the problem of youth crime to serve political and media interests has been an intense fear and mistrust of young people from the general public, accompanied by a desire for increasingly punitive and controlling sanctions. In the process, children who offend have been deprived of their innocence, vulnerability and status as a “child”.</p>
<p>New policies proposed after Bulger’s murder in the 1990s were vote winners and tabloid pleasers. After it came to power in 1997, the new Labour government introduced methods that stigmatised young offenders. These <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/7294/1/Governing_young_people.pdf">included</a> risk assessment and preventative early intervention, among other “crackdowns”, initiatives, targets, policy proposals and pilot schemes. These were informed by the quick-fix idea that youth crime could be “nipped in the bud” and intervention undertaken before a crime was committed. </p>
<p>Despite pathways into and out of crime being notoriously complex and difficult to measure accurately, the Labour government deployed surveillance, control and regulation of children’s behaviour to predict the “risk” they presented to themselves and others, justifying these early interventions to manage that risk. </p>
<h2>Children in prison have become rarer</h2>
<p>This emphasis on risk assessment is very slowly being phased out of youth justice systems in England and Wales, but <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/assetplus-assessment-and-planning-in-the-youth-justice-system/assetplus-assessment-and-planning-in-the-youth-justice-system">AssetPlus</a> – a new assessment and intervention planning tool – still prioritises the likely risk of reoffending as its key outcome. Preventative intervention remains the basis of AssetPlus.</p>
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<p>Still, since the Conservative-led coalition government took power in 2010, there have been <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/SC-01-2014-0002">annual reductions</a> in young people drawn into the formal criminal justice process for the first time – building on a trend that began in 2008. Child arrests in England and Wales have <a href="http://howardleague.org/news/childarrests2015/">fallen by 59%</a> in five years. There have also been annual reductions in the <a href="http://thenayj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/NAYJ-Briefing-State-of-Youth-Custody-2016.pdf">number of children</a> sentenced to custody, which in 2016 are at their lowest levels since 2000. </p>
<p>A case such as the Spalding murders attracts significant attention and publicity. Clearly horrific and devastating though the case is, it remains an extremely rare type of offence. The danger is that such an extreme crime committed by two teenagers could motivate a rapid change in political and public mood and in perceptions of young people. </p>
<p>Despite their seriousness, these high-profile murders are isolated acts and must not be used by the politicians and the media to justify more punitive responses to young people who commit crime.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67681/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Creaney is affiliated with the National Association for Youth Justice and social justice charity Peer Power. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Case does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two teenagers have been sentenced to life for a double murder. But their crime is extremely rare.Sean Creaney, Lecturer in Psychosocial Analysis of Offending Behaviour, Edge Hill UniversityStephen Case, Professor of Criminology, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/647622016-09-01T13:35:12Z2016-09-01T13:35:12ZShould all victims of crime have the right to meet the perpetrator?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136272/original/image-20160901-1018-58y1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Weighing up restorative justice. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zolnierek/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For some victims of crime, coming face to face with the perpetrator can be a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37239787">cathartic experience</a>. Now, a <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmjust/164/16402.htm">new report</a> from British MPs on the Justice Select Committee proposes that everybody in the UK should have a right to what’s called “restorative justice” – the chance for victims and offenders to meet or communicate. Until now, the MPs argue, access to such a process, which can be requested by either the victim or the offender, has been somewhat of a “postcode lottery”. </p>
<p><a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090215213550/http:/www.justice.gov.uk/docs/Restorative-Justice.pdf">Evaluations</a> of referral orders – currently the main vehicle for delivering restorative justice in England and Wales – have praised the more positive lines of communication that have been opened up between offenders, victims, parents and communities. But these evaluations have lamented the coercive nature of restorative justice, highlighting problems of low victim participation, blurred lines of accountability, and a general failure to provide offenders with the socio-economic resources for them to develop a meaningful place in community life afterwards. </p>
<h2>Rethinking punishment</h2>
<p>Some restorative justice campaigners <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/fellows/jbraithwaite/">refer to it</a> as a new pattern of thinking. They see it as a way of responding to crime or a new sentencing alternative, or more grandly as a way of transforming the entire legal system, family lives, conduct in the workplace and the practice of politics. The restorative justice movement is <a href="https://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/">often described</a> as an umbrella of a very broad range of practices and approaches which aim to transform the way contemporary societies view and respond to crime.</p>
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<p>Methods of punishing offenders are shaped by each society in different ways and influenced by their cultural qualities, morality rates and democratic processes. Most Western countries, predisposed by ideologies of the free market and individual responsibility, aim to deploy forms of punitive and proactive law-enforcement in order to target those who misbehave. Facing pressure from the mass media, politicians tend to adopt a generally punitive position when it comes to meting out justice. </p>
<p>Up until the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1991/53/section/84">1991 Criminal Justice Act</a>, punishment in the UK was expected to be conducted out of the sight of the public, to be administered by bureaucratic expertise and to be efficient and proportional. But over the last two decades, the restorative justice movement has spread widely in Western societies and become a matter for debates in juvenile and criminal justice reform. </p>
<h2>Does it work?</h2>
<p>In practical terms, most restorative justice work to date in England and Wales has involved young offenders and primarily more minor offences. In their analysis, the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmjust/164/16405.htm#_idTextAnchor012">MPs raised some doubts</a> over research which found that for every £1 spent on restorative justice the criminal justice system saves £8. But they did state that there is “clear evidence that restorative justice can provide value for money by both reducing reoffending rates and providing tangible benefits to victims”.</p>
<p>Research by the criminal justice academic Joanna Shapland, indicates that restorative justice offers benefits for <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090215211157/http:/www.justice.gov.uk/docs/restorative-justice-report_06-08.pdf">young people</a>, <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090215213550/http:/www.justice.gov.uk/docs/Restorative-Justice.pdf">victims</a> and the wider community. This is because it involves the victim of youth crimes in ways that adversarial justice, where the Crown becomes the proxy victim, does not. </p>
<p>Traditional forms of justice can also insulate young people from the harm their behaviour has caused in a way which is unhelpful for the development of empathy to others. So if there is a genuine interest in repairing harm caused by young people and to young people, then the victim has a uniquely important role to play. When restorative justice is authentically pursued it has as much interest in restoring the young person as it does in repairing harm for the victim. </p>
<h2>Risk of coercion</h2>
<p>So while I welcome the MPs’ call to widen the use of restorative justice with young offenders, the emphasis on establishing a legislative right for victims of crime to access restorative justice services risks compromising principles of due process and proportionality. When used in youth justice, there remains clear potential for proceedings to be primarily coercive. The child or young person who has committed the crime is usually faced by a panel of adults – a chair from the youth offending team and two volunteers – none of whom have direct responsibility to promote the “best interests of the child”. </p>
<p>Restorative justice – underpinned as it is by the principles of repairing harm, participation from those involved and transformation in the relationships between the community and government – might offer youth justice a chance to rediscover its commitment to social justice. </p>
<p>But the MPs propose that the burden should remain on individuals to accept responsibility for their actions. Rather less attention is given to the potential of replacing legal definitions of crime and the introduction of formal procedures that aim to reconcile conflicts of interests and heal rifts. </p>
<p>In the youth justice context, if taken seriously, restorative justice requires a fundamental rethinking of policy and practice. The report from MPs pays lip-service to the philosophy of restorative justice, but its proposals would tinker with the system rather than truly reform it. Notions of individual responsibility rather than those of community empowerment and restorative social justice continue to be the basis for our youth justice system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64762/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Paylor has received funding from the Youth Justice Board. </span></em></p>MPs have proposed that restorative justice should eventually become a right in the UK.Ian Paylor, Senior lecturer in sociology, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.