Boys, Behaviour and The Law
The good news about boys and offending is that the numbers are not going up particularly, they are not going down much either.
A recent report by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research BOSCAR examined data over the last 10 years to March 2025. It shows that the number of young people dealt with by NSW police over the last decade has remained relatively consistent each year, with there being 11,261 young persons charged by the police between March 2024 - and March 2025. 10,026 young persons were dealt with by way of diversionary schemes through the same period.
In the last 12 months, the most common offending for young people where police have laid charges is for stalking, intimidation or harassment (by a fairly significant extent). This is followed by assaults, breaking and entering, and thefts. Other common charges are those involving drugs, robbery and sexual offending.
Over two-thirds (69%) of youth offenders were male say recently published data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the 2023-2024 financial year.
There are many theories about how to change behaviour and one is to educate boys about the law and whether their behaviour oversteps the line and wanders into illegality.
Early legal education helps with prevention of youth crime rates, foster respectful relationships, and create a culture of responsibility among young people.
“Knowledge is power. In particular, it is critical for young persons to have an understanding of healthy and respectful relationships, and when some kinds of school yard or online bullying might actually stray into the territory of criminal offending,” says lawyer Angela Cooney from Armstrong Legal.
“It is not uncommon for some kinds of behaviour to become normalised in some settings, to the extent that the young persons involved in it do not have a proper appreciation of the seriousness of the conduct. This is of course why there is a defined “age” of criminal responsibility.”
In NSW, if you are less than 10 years old, you are incapable of committing a criminal offence. If you are between 10 and 14 years old, there is a presumption that you are incapable, but it can be rebutted by the prosecution calling evidence to establish that the child knew that what they were doing was seriously wrong. From 15 upwards a child is presumed to have the ‘capacity’ to commit a criminal offence, as an adult is.
“As a community, we have an obligation to be doing better to teach people how to have respectful relationships and what this looks like in practice. The Courts can be a blunt and ineffective tool in creating the widespread social change that is needed to prevent these issues in young people. By the time people are charged and go through the court system, the conduct has already been engaged in (if it is proven),” adds Trudie Cameron who lawyers with Angela Cooney.
Education is aimed at preventing the conduct from occurring in the first place. The Justice System should be the driving factor in correcting behaviour before it starts, often the involvement of the justice system only occurs after alleged conduct. It needs to start with education, and it needs to start early.
Young men navigating relationships remain one of the highest categories of offenders. In particular, offending within relationships is a real problem - domestic assaults, harassment/intimidation and sexual offences are too common.
Whilst the numbers of sexual assaults are not as high as domestic violence related assaults, the consequences for victims are significant, if not catastrophic and can adversely affect the course of one's life. For those accused, being charged with a sexual assault can similarly be catastrophic. Even for people with no prior offending, being found guilty will almost inevitably lead to gaol time.
“Some of these areas of law, for example, about consent, are incredibly complicated to navigate, even for lawyers who are experts in the area.
“It’s also critical for parents of children to understand how to best support their child if they find themselves in a situation involving police. Most people never “plan” on needing a criminal lawyer - let alone for their children. Not making the right decisions from the very moment the issue arises can cause significant detriment to the case,” says Cooney.
Education needs to be delivered in an age-appropriate manner, with increasing detail given to students as they get older. In an ideal world, education about criminal offences, and how the justice system works, should be delivered by a lawyer with expertise in Criminal Law (in conjunction with related education about the related social and relationship aspects of these subjects).
Whilst legal studies is an elective for students to choose in more senior years of secondary schooling, there really needs to be a focus on teaching the entire school community about the justice system, about consequences, about what kinds of conduct is actually an offence, and about what services they can access if they are at risk or need help.
Information sessions could also be offered to parents of children, to ensure that they know how to best support their child if they find themselves in a situation where there is police, or potential police involvement.
Broadly speaking, there are three ways that matters might progress involving young persons:
1. Through a diversionary scheme
2. Through the Children’s Court
3. For serious offending, in the District Court of NSW where children are tried in the same way as adults.
“It's really critical that children (and their parents) have early, expert advice on a matter when children are being investigated for a crime. There is some complexity in the kinds of matters that can be dealt with by diversions such as cautions, and in particular, there are some categories of offences (for example, aggravated sexual assaults) where young people will be tried in the same was as an adult in the District Court.
“In circumstances where children are being investigated for criminal offences it is often the case that lawyers are only contacted after that investigation is already part way through, or as an afterthought,” says Cameron.