Australia's child justice system is in crisis and a national, evidence-based response aligned with human rights and rule of law principles is needed to protect vulnerable children and keep our communities safe.
"Around the country, state and territory governments are taking supposed tough on crime stances which provide harsh penalties for children who commit crimes, an approach we already know does not work," Law Council of Australia President, Juliana Warner said.
"The problem with the adult time for adult crime rhetoric is that there is no proof this will make our communities safer, but plenty of evidence it will irreparably harm the child and increase the potential of them seeing a life of crime as their only option.
"Children are not adults and approaches to criminal justice designed for adults are inappropriate to address alleged breaches of the law by children.
"Youth crime is indisputably linked to trauma and disadvantage – poverty, poor health, lower education and higher support needs. Many children involved are themselves victims of crime and neglect. First Nations children, children from low-income families, children in out of home care and children with disability are disproportionately affected by punitive responses.
"Simply locking children up without looking for the root cause of their alleged offending and focusing on how they can be supported and rehabilitated is a shameful societal failure and a breach of our international human right obligations.
"Of course, there must be consequences when a child commits a crime, and it is important to acknowledge that children can and do engage in behaviour that can have significant and harmful effects on their victims.
"But our automatic go-to solution cannot simply be to detain children as young as 10 years of age.
"Today the Law Council of Australia is releasing its Policy Statement on Child Justice Reform and calling for a nationally coordinated approach to child justice which is based on human rights and rule of law principles and evidence of what makes communities safer.
"A nationally coordinated response is more likely to recognise that children engaging in antisocial behaviours is not only a 'criminal justice' issue for each jurisdiction to solve, but one where better outcomes will be achieved through coordinated reform of health, education, housing, social services, family, disability support, child protection and criminal justice systems.
"We must do more to implement preventive, protective approaches to child justice in this country."
