AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY

Question 1

Define ‘age of criminal responsibility’.

Answer 1

From ten years of age, a person can be prosecuted for committing an offence. This is considered the ‘age of criminal responsibility’ when the offender knows the difference between right and wrong.

Question 2

At what age does an individual gain criminal responsibility?

Answer 2

At 10 years of age, unless there are defences against the criminal charges.

( Innocence
 Self defence
 Duress
 Accident
 Mistake of fact
 Automatism
 Necessity)

Question 3

What is the age of criminal responsibility in NSW?

Answer 3

10 years old.

Question 4

What is ‘doli incapax’?

Answer 4

A Latin term meaning ‘incapable of wrong’ (i.e. of criminal intent); the presumption that children under a certain age cannot be held legally responsible for their actions and so cannot be guilty of an offence.

Question 5

What happened with the United Nations in 1989?

Answer 5

In 1989, the United Nations established a treaty on children’s rights known as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). (Aka CROC)

Question 6

What did the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (CROC) include?

Answer 6

Many aims and requirements for the treatment of children, including certain rights for children under criminal law. Particularly, Article 40 (3)(a) of:

the convention encouraged the establishment in all countries/laws of a ‘minimum age below which children shall be presumed not to have the capacity to infringe the penal law’.