By ERWIN CHLANDA
If you got all excited at your last Eastside BBQ about the new CLP Government lowering the legal age of criminal responsibility from 12 years to 10 years you could have saved your breath.
As Robyn Lambley’s informative newsletter points out, children under the age of 14 in the NT are protected by doli incapax (“incapable of wrong”).
It presumes that a child between 10 and 14 does not have the capacity to differentiate between right and wrong.
The presumption requires the police prosecution to prove that a youth offender has the capacity to understand right from wrong and is therefore responsible for the crime they are alleged to have committed, says the Independent MLA for Araluen and the new Speaker.
“Due to the large volume of youth offenders coming through the NT courts the police prosecution do not have the resources to disprove doli incapax for all cases. This is why invariably we see young offenders routinely ‘getting off’ without consequences.
“There are very few examples of the NT police prosecution successfully disproving doli incapax – only one to my knowledge.
“It has been put to me that it should be the role of the defence to prove doli incapax rather than the onus placed entirely on the police prosecution to prove against doli incapax.
“This is why we see the same kids continuing to reoffend again and again. They are protected by doli incapax.”
The last NT election was an undignified “tough on crime” competition.
Under the tutelage of Shane Stone, the CLP trounced Labor. To me, the result was highly predictable when in Oct 2023 newly elected CLP President Stone declared “we old blokes know how to win” or words to that effect.
After all it was Shane Stone who taught John Howard how to dog-whistle and play the race card.
I’d never heard of ‘doli incapax’ (thank you Robyn). I vaguely know of ‘Magna Carta’, ‘Habeas Corpus’, the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt.
Somebody put it to Robyn Lamley that the defence should have to prove ‘doli incapax’. That same person may also think the law should start off with a presumption of guilt.
As is, half the prisoners in the NT are “presumed to be innocent” persons on remand, locked up for an average exceeding half a year. The NT has by far the highest incarceration rate in Australia (1.1% of the adult population), yet the alleged crime crisis is unabated.
Maybe we are barking up the wrong tree. I wish we knew what the right tree is.
I never knew about the “doli incapax” but to say that a 10 to 14 year old does not know right from wrong is total rubbish. We are told at early primary school age, 5 or 6 with patents’ help how to cross a road and do it properly by 8 years old.
That is a lesson in what’s right and wrong.
This law above needs to be abolished. Its total rubbish.
Adult time for adult crime. Get the Judges to do their job properly and stop giving them excuses not to put these criminals in jail whether 14 or 40.
Enough of the nanny state mentality already.
@ Frank. Bark up the tree of NEGLECT, when it begins in adolescence, or extends from childhood into adolescence.
As in early childhood, early adolescence is a window when brain development, socio-emotional and cognitive development are compromised by neglect. It is much more difficult for adolescents to change after they have established criminal behaviour.
Neglect is the effect of many causes including poor parental supervision, weak parent-child bonds, the stress of overcrowded dwellings (noise and conflict, poor sleep, no safety, privacy or place to play/study), frequent changes of address, inconsistent or harsh parental discipline and domestic violence, single parent families and the stress of chronic parental unemployment and social isolation, the stress of chronic poverty, concentrating people at risk of child neglect in the same area, and child exposure to criminal peers.
The difficulty is that we need to invest in health, education and welfare of children and adolescents before they enter the justice system, and we need enough people – black and white – who will make the effort to change. In my experience, that rarely happens even when officials see the evidence right in front of them.
The NT Government lacks courage, then ability to ensure children ALL appropriately cared for.
The NT Government lacks courage to ensure children NOT properly cared for by their parent are to be cared for by others who will act properly to care for them.
The NT Government lacks courage to care for children.
The Commonwealth Government lacks courage to protect these children.
The Commonwealth lacks moral courage to convict adults who damage their children.
A drunk is a drunk, is a drunk … not a parent.
The NT Government needs ensure children fully protected, with decisions for their care to be made by courts.
NT Government lacks courage to do the right thing to protect the Children.
Those trying to protect the children are ignored as well…
@ Michael More excuses. How much more money is needed following the $250 odd million left here by Albo a year or so ago? Where did it go? Was any effort made to evaluate the results if any?
Are there lessons to be learned from the successful prosecutions and the demise of the former leaders of ATSIC or will more money change that approach and gravy train thinking amongst administrators and the legal profession?
A recent experience at Kmart here with a friend who is a security guard tells me that money is not the solution. He apprehended a 13 year old girl shoplifting. He was told to his face: “Touch me and I’ll call legal aid.”
Most pf these kids know which side of the law protects them and they instinctively know what benefits them. Sections of the media have not helped.
Remember the youths who mounted the roof of Don Dale a few years ago and how sections gathered to their defence and made excuses for them?
The ball then fell onto their court and they became heroes and possibly re-enforced other similar behaviour.
Some even probably even benefited financially as did the lawyers. They should have been left there to get another point across to them. They won as they continue to do!
@ Trevor. Don’t make excuses, but recognise the scope of the problem to avoid quick fixes.
I know plenty of affluent white kids who take advantage of that change in the law to make the same threatening statements.
But what do those black and white kids all have in common? Absent fathers and neglect.
Government and money alone can’t fix that.