The Australian state of Queensland has passed laws which will see children as young as 10 subject to the same penalties as adults if convicted of crimes such as murder, serious assault and break-ins.
The government says the harsher sentencing rules are in response to “community outrage over crimes being perpetrated by young offenders” and will act as a deterrent.
But many experts have pointed to research showing that tougher penalties do not reduce youth offending, and can in fact exacerbate it.
The United Nations has also criticised the reforms, arguing they disregard conventions on the human rights of children and violate international law.The Liberal National Party (LNP) – which won the state election in October – made the rules a hallmark of its campaign, saying they put the “rights of victims” ahead of “the rights of criminals”.
“These laws are for every Queenslander who has ever felt unsafe and been a victim of youth crime across our state,” Premier David Crisafulli said after parliament passed the bill on Thursday.
Leading up to the vote, both sides of politics had claimed that Queensland was in the grips of a youth crime wave, and that a more punitive approach was necessary to combat the issue.
But data from the Australian bureau of statistics, shows that youth crime has halved in Queensland across the past 14 years, that it hit its lowest rate in recorded history in 2022, and has remained relatively steady since.
Figures from the Queensland Police Service and the Australian Institute of Criminology also demonstrate a clear downward trend.
Dubbed by the government as “adult crime, adult time”, the new laws list 13 offences which will now be subject to harsher prison sentences when committed by youths, including mandatory life detention for murder, with a non-parole period of 20 years.
Previously, the maximum penalty for young offenders convicted of murder was 10 years in jail, with life imprisonment only considered if the crime was “particularly heinous”.
The laws also remove “detention as a last resort” provisions – which favour non-custodial orders, such as fines or community service, for children rather than incarceration – and will make it possible for judges to consider a child’s full criminal history when sentencing.
The Queensland Police Union has called the changes “a leap forward in the right direction”, while Queensland’s new Attorney-General Deb Frecklington says it will give courts the ability to “better address patterns of offending” and “hold people accountable for their actions”.
But in a summary, Frecklington also noted the changes were in direct conflict with international standards, that Indigenous children would be disproportionately impacted and that more youngsters were likely to be held in police cells for extended periods because detention centres are full.
Queensland already has more children in detention than any other Australian state or territory.
Premier Crisafulli said on Thursday that although there may be “pressure in the short-term” his government had a long-term plan to “deliver a raft of other detention facilities and different options”.
Australia’s commissioner for children, Anne Hollonds, described the changes as an “international embarrassment”.
She also accused Queensland’s government of “ignoring evidence” which suggests “the younger a child comes into contact with the justice system, the more likely it is that they will continue to commit more serious crimes”.
“The fact that [the bill’s] provisions are targeting our most at-risk children makes this retreat from human rights even more shocking,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Other legal experts, who gave evidence to a parliamentary hearing on the bill last week, said the laws could have unintended consequences for victims, with children being less likely to plead guilty given the tougher sentences, resulting in more trials and longer court delays.