SST lashes crazy TOP policy

Chris Lynch reports:

The Sensible Sentencing Trust has launched a blistering attack on The Opportunity Party’s policy to raise the age of Youth Court jurisdiction, describing it as one of the craziest ideas it has seen in years.

Opportunity’s “Smart on Crime” policy promised until recently to “raise the age of the youth court jurisdiction to 25, in line with developmental science”.

The words “to 25” were quietly removed from the party’s website between March and late July, while the commitment to lift the age remained.

Party leader Qiulae Wong was unable to say last week where the new limit should be set.

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokeswoman Louise Parsons said the original proposal was extreme and dismissed the suffering of victims on the basis of an offender’s age.

“Around 25 percent of all sexual violence and 30 percent of all crime is committed by offenders aged 18 to 25,” she said. “Sending them to the Youth Court will only reduce consequences, hide offending from the media and the public, and will incentivise more crime, because there are far fewer consequences.”

TOP’s policy is for 24 year old rapists and bashers to get sent to a family group conference, instead of face criminal responsibility for their actions. They are more extreme than the Greens.