When someone doesn’t obey the law, we say that they have broken the law. Sometimes, people get hurt or suffer when laws are broken. Injured people are called victims. When some laws are broken, everyone feels afraid. Not just the victim.
We call these things crimes and the people who commit these crimes are criminals. We also believe that criminals must be punished. There are many types of crime, such as assault, stealing or murder.
Some young people are charged with causing public disorder. Swearing, spraying graffiti on walls, stopping traffic, damaging public property or ‘hanging out’ in large groups may not hurt anybody, but it may be offensive conduct that makes some people feel unsafe or uncomfortable when they go out with friends or family.
LOOKING AHEAD
In the chapters that follow, we will see that the police have special powers to deal with public disorder and offensive conduct.
‘Accessories’
What about a person who ‘came along for the ride’ while someone else committed a crime? They are said to be committing an offence as an accessory and may still be punished. For example, if your friend took a car for a ‘joy ride’ and you went along for the ride, you would also be in trouble – even if you didn’t want to go in the first place.
Punishment must be fair
It is very difficult to decide how to punish criminals. A long time ago, a lot of punishments were very cruel and hurtful. Punishments in Australia have changed a lot. Most criminals go to jail, pay a big fine or have to do community service to help make up for the damage they have done.
Good behaviour bonds, cautions, circle sentencing in Aboriginal communities / community justice centres
Children breaking laws
In New South Wales, no child under 10 can be charged with a crime. If you are between 10 and 14 you can be convicted of a crime if the police can prove that you knew you were doing something seriously wrong. This is called the age of criminal responsibility . If you are over 14 you are old enough to know the crime was seriously wrong.
If a child breaks the law, how should he or she be punished? In most parts of Australia, lawmakers in parliament have decided that for less serious crimes it is better not to take children to court or send them straight to jail. Instead, children who break laws should be given a chance to learn from their mistake. They must:
Accept responsibility for breaking the law and understand that they have done something wrong
Understand that other people have been hurt by what they have done.
Apologise to the victim or the community and promise to make amends.
There are three ways this can happen. The first is a police warning, which police officers may give at the time they catch children breaking a law. The police must write down a child’s name and the warning he or she has been given.
The second is called a police caution, which can be given by police or certain other people, such as Aboriginal elders. The child has to admit that he or she committed a crime before the caution is given.
The most serious warning for children who commit crimes is a youth justice conference, which can be ordered by the police, a prosecutor or a court after they have admitted breaking the law. This is a meeting attended by the child, an adult responsible for the child, the police and the victims of the crime.
The child may have to apologise to the victim, make amends to the victim or take part in a community program to make up for their crime. Later, we will see that if the crime is serious enough, the child may be charged and will have to appear in the Children's Court.
Keywords
Crime
Punishment
age of criminal responsibility
Make amends
Let’s find out
Study the newspaper and look for stories about crime. How many different crimes can you find, and how many kinds of punishment? If you live outside New South Wales, what is the age of criminal responsibility in your state?
Let’s explore
In class discuss crime.
Is it fair for someone to be punished the first time they break a law, or should they be given a warning and told not to do it again?
Mary and Joe went into a shop together. Mary stole a Mars Bar and Joe stole a computer game.
Mary has been caught shoplifting before but it was Joe’s first crime.
Mary said that she was sorry but Joe wouldn’t say anything.
