KEY POINTS:
Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro says she does not support lowering the age of criminal prosecution, but she does favour tightening existing provisions to deal with young persistent offenders.
The Government yesterday issued a discussion document on ways to update the 1989 Children, Young Persons and their Families Act, and lowering the age of criminal prosecution from 14 to 12 is one of the suggestions in it.
The suggestions are not government policy, but the paper says there is widespread concern about a small number of children under 14 who are repeat offenders.
At present, children under 14 can be prosecuted only for murder and manslaughter.
Ms Kiro said the Act provided New Zealand with a good system, but she believed some parts of it needed to be tightened up.
"I see this consultation (the discussion document) as an opportunity to clarify the law around child offending and make it clearer to interpret by judges, police and social workers," she said.
"I do support simplifying and clarifying the language of the Act, particularly around child offenders who are more likely to go on to persistent youth offending."
Ms Kiro said this did not mean she supported lowering the age of criminal liability.
"I'm supportive of the possibility of extending Youth Court jurisdiction to cover 12 and 13-year-olds and increasing options such as extending supervision orders."
Ms Kiro said there was "a widespread false premise" that youth offending was steadily increasing, but this was not the case.
"On the basis of population, the total number of 14 to 16-year-olds apprehended by the police from 1995 to 2004 has dropped 13 per cent."
- NZPA
