Australia’s medical colleges have penned an open letter calling on the Federal Government to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
Lifting the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years was a “vital measure” needed to protect the health and wellbeing of children, the letter reads.
“It is a disgrace that children under 14 in Australia are still being locked up and this flies in the face of all medical evidence and advice,” RACP President and Paediatrician Dr Jacqueline Small said.
“Children between the ages of 10 and 13 years old do not have the developmental maturity and decision making skills to be held criminally responsible, and we know that many of the children in youth incarceration have suffered from trauma or have developmental disabilities that impair their decision making skills.
“These children are often undiagnosed until after they enter the criminal justice system.”
In the letter, the colleges also demand the government immediately release a 2020 report prepared for the Council of Attorneys-General reviewing whether the age of criminal responsibility should be raised.
The medical colleges’ letter follows an ABC Four Corners report revealing the report to the Council of Attorneys-General was never publicly released.
Read Related Also: How lucky Harry and Meghan had the cameras there to capture that text from Beyonce – JAN MOIR
The program also highlighted cases of children being held in brutal conditions in youth detention.
Signatories to the open letter include the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM), Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand (CICM), Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZP).
The letter calls on the Federal Government to establish a task force to fix recurring problems in the youth justice system, in line with the advice of the National Children’s Commissioner.
A national campaign to lift the age of criminal responsibility has been supported in the past by legal groups, including the Law Council of Australia.
In 2019, federal independent MP Rebekha Sharkie introduced a bill to the house of representatives in 2019 proposing to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, but the major parties did not support it.
