A centuries-old legal presumption that children aged between 10 and 14 don’t understand the difference between right and wrong is to be reviewed after New South Wales youth criminal conviction rates tumbled fivefold.
The NSW attorney general’s office said the review will consider how the principle of doli incapax – Latin for “incapable of evil” – is applied in criminal proceedings, its impact on intervention, possible improvements and a framework for legislation.
In NSW, the criminal age of responsibility is 10 but doli incapax can apply up to 14. The presumption can be rebutted if police can prove a child understood what they did was seriously wrong, as opposed to naughty.
Geoffrey Bellew SC, the state parole authority chair and a former supreme court judge, and Jeffrey Loy, a former NSW police deputy commissioner, will lead the doli incapax review, the NSW attorney general, Michael Daley, said on Thursday.