The Age of Criminal Liability (Vic)
The age of criminal liability is the age at which a person can be arrested, charged and found guilty of a criminal offence. The age of criminal liability in Victoria is now 12, having been raised from 10 in 2025. The change was made in response to widespread pressure to raise the age across all Australian jurisdictions due to the high number of children, and particularly Indigenous children, in detention.
Legislation
Section 10 of the Youth Justice Act states that a child under 12 cannot commit a criminal offence.
Children under 12
Children under 12 cannot be arrested, summonsed, charged or found guilty of a criminal offence (Section 344, Children, Youth and Families Act). This is because children below 12 are considered too young to be held responsible for their actions under the criminal law.
If a child under the age of criminal liability commits an act that would be a criminal offence if committed by an older person, such as an act of violence or stealing, there are various consequences that could flow from this.
These include:
- the child being disciplined by parents or teachers;
- a notification being made to Child Protection that the child is being inadequately supervised or cared for;
- the child being referred to counselling.
Children between 12 and 14
When a child between the ages of 12 and 14 is charged with an offence, the prosecution must show that he or she understood the act was a crime and that the behaviour was seriously wrong and not simply naughty.
If prosecution cannot establish that the child knew the act was wrong, the young person will be acquitted on the basis of immature age. This is known as the doli incapax (‘incapable of evil’) rule.
The doli incapax rule amounts to a rebuttable presumption that a child under 14 is not criminally responsible.
Children and criminal charges
When a young person aged over 12 but under 18 is charged with a criminal offence, the matter is generally dealt with in the Children’s Court, which is the juvenile division of the Magistrates Court.
If the offence is a serious indictable offence, it will be mentioned in the Children’s Court, then committed to the District, County or Supreme Court.
Young people who are dealt with by the Children’s Court are subject to the same procedures and rules of evidence as adult offenders. There are also some additional rules that apply to juvenile offenders, such as the requirement that they attend court accompanied by a responsible adult, usually a parent.
A young person who is found guilty or pleads guilty to an offence in Victoria is sentenced under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005. The primary goal to be achieved by any sentencing order under that act is the rehabilitation of the young person.
The court can sentence the young person to a range of orders, including a good behaviour bond, a fine, a youth supervision order or a period of detention. The court can also defer sentencing for a period to allow the young person to participate in a group conference or a diversionary program.
Controversy over low age of criminal liability
Until 2022, all Australian states and territories had an age of criminal liability of 10. Since then, several jurisdictions have raised their minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 or 14.
Demands that governments raise the age of criminal responsibility followed the exposure of human rights abuses in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in the Northern Territory by ABC program Four Corners during 2016.
A low age of criminal responsibility is widely believed to lead to the institutionalisation of young children, and to poorer educational and employment outcomes, as well as increasing the likelihood that they will come into the criminal justice system again as adults.
The young people who come before the courts and are sentenced to youth detention are overwhelmingly from low socio-economic groups, with Indigenous children being over-represented.
Advocates of raising the age of criminal liability argue that having a low age further marginalises underprivileged children, entrenching disadvantage.
Plan to raise age to 14 abandoned
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child advocates all countries working towards an age of criminal liability of 14 or higher.
The Victorian government previously committed to raising the age of criminal liability first to 12, and subsequently to 14 by 2027.
However, this plan has now been abandoned due to concerns about community perceptions of crime.
If you require legal advice or representation in a criminal matter or in any other legal matter, please contact Go To Court Lawyers.
Fernanda Dahlstrom is a writer, editor and lawyer. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Latrobe University), a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (College of Law), a Bachelor of Arts (The University of Melbourne) and a Master of Arts (Deakin University). Fernanda practised law for eight years, working in criminal law, child protection and domestic violence law in the Northern Territory, and in family law in Queensland.
