WA Police commissioner Chris Dawson calls for criminal age of responsibility to be raised from 10 to 12

WA Police commissioner Chris Dawson has thrown his weight behind a national push to raise the criminal age of responsibility — but says it should be lifted to 12 years old and not 14 as law reformers advocate. At present children as young as 10 can be charged by police. More than 70 organisations have endorsed a report by Social Reinvestment WA calling for 14 to be the age limit. Almost three-quarters of daily juvenile detainees in WA last year were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, despite making up just 5 per cent of the population. Commissioner Dawson said he had made a submission to the State Attorney-General to lift the age to 12 as long as children who committed crimes were still dealt with. “I have no difficulty with the age being raised from 10 to 12, but I put that in with a big caveat — it must be subject to proper criminal justice interventions and diversions schemes meeting that need,” he said on a visit to Broome last week. “The fact is, children as young as 10, 11 and 12 do commit serious and violent crime. That’s a reality. We don’t need to kid ourselves that children under the age of 12 don’t commit criminal offences, they do. “Ultimately, if there are really good programs in place, I think that’d be a better way than chalking up loads of court convictions. I don’t think at the moment a leap from 10-14 would be wise.” With Indigenous youths over represented in the justice system State and Territory attorneys-general discussed raising the age of criminal responsibility in July last year but decided to delay a decision because they said more work was needed. The United Nations recommends 14 as the minimum criminal age.