Cheryl Scanlon says youth crime is ‘complex’ while police minister says number of young people denied bail is proof of tough stance
The Queensland government is facing pressure to tighten its already strict bail laws after two teenagers were arrested for the alleged murder of 41-year-old mother Emma Lovell.
Lovell, originally from Suffolk in the UK, was stabbed in the chest at her home in North Lakes in Moreton Bay on Boxing Day, during an alleged home invasion.
Continue reading...Police minister Mark Ryan says nation-leading incarceration rates reflect what the community wants
Queensland children could be pleading guilty to offences they didn’t commit, a new report suggests, with the state’s police minister saying its nation-leading rates of youth incarceration reflect the “community’s expectation”.
The comments from Mark Ryan came after he released an eight-month-old report, assessing new bail laws designed to enable the Palaszczuk government’s “crackdown on youth crime”, late on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...Government says authorities will refer children under 12 and their families to parenting and behavioural change programs to break the cycle of offending
The Northern Territory government is seeking to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old to 12 years old.
The Labor government introduced the legislation to parliament on Thursday, saying authorities would now refer children under the age of 12 and their families to intensive parenting and behavioural change programs to break the cycle of offending.
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Continue reading...Matt Bach has written to UN subcommittee about the ‘systematic’ isolation of youth detainees he says contravenes international law
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Victorian Liberal MP Matt Bach has written to the United Nations subcommittee on the prevention of torture, urging them to investigate the “systematic” use of isolation in the state’s youth justice facilities during an upcoming visit.
The subcommittee is set to visit Australia from 16-27 October to inspect places of detention and examine the treatment of detainees.
Continue reading...Experts say Alesha’s killer, Aaron Campbell, is ‘not a one-off’ – and more can be done to prevent similar crimes
Since Aaron Campbell received a life sentence last month for the brutal rape and murder of six-year-old Alesha MacPhail, the reverberations from his crimes have continued as the public and professionals struggle to come to terms with what the trial judge, Lord Matthews, described as “some of the wickedest, most evil crimes this court has ever heard”.
Related: Why was Alesha MacPhail killed? Perhaps we should stop asking | Libby Brooks
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