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Children as young as ten will face adult prison sentences in Australia after outrage over youth offenders

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The state of Queensland has introduced new laws that will see children as young as 10 face adult prison sentences, aiming to reduce youth crime rates.

Children as young as ten who have committed crimes will face the same penalties as adults if found guilty, as the Australian state of Queensland passes a new law to crack down on youth crime.

The government said the harsh measure is a response to “community outrage over crimes perpetrated by young offenders” and believes the measure will act as a deterrent.

After the bill was passed on Thursday, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said: “These laws are for every Queenslander who has ever felt unsafe and been a victim of youth crime across our state”.

Labeled by the government as “adult crime, adult time,” the new law lists 13 crimes that will now be subject to harsher prison sentences when committed by minors.

This includes a mandatory life sentence for murder without parole for 20 years.

Previously, the maximum sentence for young people who had committed murder was 10 years, with life imprisonment only considered if the crime was “particularly heinous”.

It comes after the Liberal National Party, which won the Queensland state election in October, made regulations a central point of its campaign.

Before the vote, politicians had claimed Queensland was suffering from a wave of youth crime and a tough approach was needed to combat the problem.

The state of Queensland has introduced new laws that will see children as young as 10 face adult prison sentences, aiming to reduce youth crime rates.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli praised the passing of the bill.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli praised the passing of the bill.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed earlier this year that 289,657 Queenslanders had been victims of crime in 2023, with more assaults and home invasions than any other state.

An increase in assaults, sexual assaults, kidnappings, robberies, blackmail, break-ins and thefts caused the total number of victims to increase by 13 percent compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, a report from the state auditor general found that 55 percent of all juvenile crimes in the state between 2022 and 2023 had been committed by “serious repeat offenders.”

It also reported that the average daily number of serious repeat offenders had increased by 64 per cent from 278 in 2018-19 to 457 in 2022-23.

But experts have criticized the measure, saying tougher penalties do not reduce the number of crimes committed by young people.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has criticized Queensland’s laws, calling them a “blatant disregard” for children’s rights.

Before the bill was passed, the president of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child said in a video posted on X on Saturday that: “We do not agree that so-called ‘exceptional circumstances’ justify what It will be a blatant disregard for the rights of the child under international law.

‘We also don’t agree that this will make Queensland safer.

‘We urge the Queensland Government to stand firm on the principle that children should be treated differently to adults in the criminal justice system.

“We also urge you not to deviate from the long-standing and universally accepted principle that the deprivation of liberty of young offenders should be a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.”

Despite Queensland’s tough stance towards young people, crime by young people has decreased, according to data from the Queensland Police Service and the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics also stated that youth crime rates have halved in the last 14 years in the state of Queensland.

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