Children under 10 will face adult prison sentences in Australian state

The Australian state of Queensland has passed legislation that will give children under the age of 10 the same punishment as adults if found guilty of crimes such as murder, aggravated assault and vandalism.

The government says the tougher sentencing rules are in response to “community outrage at crimes being committed by young offenders” and will act as a deterrent.

But many experts have pointed to research showing that harsher punishments do not reduce youth crime, rather they may increase it.

The United Nations has also criticized the reforms, arguing that they ignore conventions on the human rights of children and violate international law.

The Liberal National Party (LNP) – which won the state election in October – made the rules a hallmark of their campaign, saying they put “the rights of victims” ahead of “the rights of criminals”.

“These laws are for every Queenslander who has ever felt unsafe and been a victim of youth crime in our state,” Premier David Crisafulli said after the bill was passed by Parliament on Thursday.

Before the vote, both sides of politics had claimed that Queensland was in the grip of a youth crime wave, and that a more punitive approach was necessary to deal with the issue.

But Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows youth crime has halved in Queensland over the past 14 years, reaching its lowest rate in recorded history in 2022, and has remained relatively stable since then.

Figures from the Queensland Police Service and the Australian Institute of Criminology also show a clear downward trend.

The new laws, dubbed “Adult Crime, Adult Time” by the government, list 13 crimes that will now be subject to harsher prison sentences if committed by youth, including murder with a non-parole period of 20 years. Mandatory life imprisonment is also included.

Previously, the maximum sentence for young offenders convicted of murder was 10 years in prison, with life imprisonment only considered if the crime was “particularly heinous”.

The laws also remove “custody as a last resort” provisions – which favor non-custodial orders for children, such as fines or community service, rather than imprisonment – ​​and require judges to have full custody of the child when sentencing. Will make it possible to consider criminal history.

The Queensland Police Union has called the changes “a leap in the right direction”, while Queensland’s new Attorney-General Deb Frecklington says it will help the courts “better address patterns of offending” and “hold people to account for their actions”. Will provide the ability to be held accountable. ,

But in a summary, Frecklington also said the changes were in direct conflict with international standards, that Indigenous children would be disproportionately affected and that more young people were likely to be held in police cells for extended periods as detention centers filled up. Has happened.

Queensland already has more children in custody than any other Australian state or territory.

Premier Crisafulli said on Thursday that although there may be “pressure in the short term”, his government had long-term plans to “provide a range of other detention facilities and different options”.

Australia’s Commissioner for Children, Anne Hollands, described the changes as an “international embarrassment”.

He also accused the Queensland Government of “ignoring the evidence” which suggests that “the younger a child comes into contact with the justice system, the more likely they are to go on to commit more serious crimes”.

“The fact that (the bill’s) provisions are targeting our most at-risk children makes this retreat from human rights even more shocking,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Other legal experts who gave evidence at a parliamentary hearing on the bill last week said the law could have unintended consequences for victims, with harsher sentences making children less likely to confess to crimes, resulting in more prosecutions and court overreach. There will be a long delay.

Additional reporting by Simon Atkinson