How young is too young to be held criminally responsible, and why does the line keep moving?
The campaign to lift the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, and the states that moved both ways.
What worked, what failed, what is reusable.
The medical consensus is the lever. The case for 14 rests on brain-development evidence and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Lead with the science, not the sentiment.
Progress is not linear. The ACT moved to 14 and Victoria legislated a rise in 2024; the Northern Territory reversed back to 10. The same reform can be won and lost in different jurisdictions in the same year. Treat each parliament as its own fight.
The movement half. The national Raise the Age coalition held one ask across every jurisdiction, which let a win in one place become pressure in the next.
Reusable kit: anchor on the developmental evidence and the international standard, run the fight jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and plan for the risk of regression after a win.
Research resource, not legal advice. Read the original source before acting. Cases and campaigns are gathered by shared issue tags; some may be machine-extracted and pending human review.