More than 70 peak organisations have endorsed calls from Social Reinvestment WA urging the state to raise the age of criminal responsibility from ten to 14 years old.
The report ‘A Pathway to a Brighter Future for Western Australia’s most at risk children’ found almost 75 per cent of the average daily population in juvenile detention are First Nations children.
Indigenous children make up just five per cent of young people in WA.
Social Reinvestment WA is urging the government to reform the juvenile justice system and put more funding into rehabilitation and prevention to support young people at risk.
These children are currently being failed by the system, according the SRWA s Co-Chair Daniel Morrison.