To Raise or Not to Raise

An Experimental Test of Community Support for Increasing the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility in New South Wales, Australia

Bibliographic Data

ID11228808
AuthorsCameron T Langfield (0000-0001-5596-3478, School of Social Sciences University of Wollongong Wollongong New South Wales Australia, corresponding author), Natalia Hanley (0000-0002-4009-4326, School of Social Sciences University of Wollongong Wollongong New South Wales Australia), Jason Payne (0000-0002-3342-4550, School of Social Sciences University of Wollongong Wollongong New South Wales Australia), H Blair Simpson (0000-0003-0731-614X, School of Social Sciences University of Wollongong Wollongong New South Wales Australia)
Year2026
Volume61
Issue1
Pages163-173
Publication date2026-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Journal of Social Issues (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0157-6321 • E-ISSN: 1839-4655
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajs4.70097
OpenAlexW7129282196
LanguageEN
References cited31

While research has identified a disconnect between the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) and public perceptions of criminal culpability among young people, no study has examined how offender characteristics influence support for reform using an experimental design. To address this, this study presents the first experimental test of public attitudes toward raising the MACR, offering a novel contribution to debates on youth justice reform in Australia and internationally. Drawing on data from 298 participants who completed a factorial survey experiment, this study varies offender age (10, 12, 14, or 16) and offending history (first‐time versus repeat) to explore support for limiting criminal justice responses to warnings or cautions among community members. A multivariate logistic regression indicated greater public support toward younger offenders (OR = 1.09), with support declining as age increased. Prior offending was associated with lower levels of support (OR = 0.07). Women and younger respondents showed the highest level of support (OR = 6.15), but their support declined more sharply as the offender aged. These findings provide insights into the conditional nature of public support for MACR reform and underline the need for experimental methodology to be utilised more widely when estimating support for youth justice‐related topics

Criminal justice · Culpability · Economic Justice · Logistic regression · Project commissioning · Public support · Publishing · Test (biology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending

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Open DOIOpen Access