1. PENALTIES FOR CHILDREN
If a young person is found guilty, they can face punishments similar to what adults get, but not as harsh.
e.g. Fines can be imposed, but only to a maximum of $1,000
e.g. Community service can be ordered, but only for a maximum of 100 hours (for under 16s) and 250 hours (16/17s)
Yep, gettin’ ’em ready for when they’re ADULT offenders…

2. Court Police decide to take action Youth Justice Conference
PENALTIES FOR CHILDREN
Police decide to take action
Court
Warning
Youth Justice Conference
Control Order (detention)
Caution
Community Service
Good Behaviour Bond
Probation
On-the-spot fine
Fine

3. PENALTIES FOR CHILDREN Police decide to take action
Court
Indigenous young people are twice as likely to be sent to court (rather than Warned or Cautioned) than non-indigenous juveniles
(Noetic Review 2010)
Control Order (detention)
Community Service
Good Behaviour Bond
Probation
Fine

4. PENALTIES FOR CHILDREN
The two controversial ones are the fines and control orders (umm… jail)
Issues with fines (from Hot Topics 73: Young People and Crime):
- They might work on kids that have money, but there’s no deterrent effect of a fine given to a poor person
- The idea of rehabilitating the young person by giving them a fine is not at all logical (what will taking their money away do to help their attitude?)
- The NSW Sentencing Council has discussed the negative effects of fines on disadvantaged young people

5. PENALTIES FOR CHILDREN
Issues with control orders (from The specific deterrent effect of custodial penalties on juvenile re-offending (book) (2009)):
Two quotes from this report sum it all up:
“In 2007 just over 10 per cent (10.3%) of the 6,488 juveniles who appeared in the New South Wales (NSW) Children’s Court were given a control order (i.e. sentenced to a period in detention). It costs $541 per day to keep a juvenile offender in detention. Forty‐eight per cent of the budget of the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice is spent keeping juvenile offenders in custody”
The report concluded that:
“No association is found between the imposition of a custodial penalty and post‐ sentence reoffending”
All that money; all those kids; and no specific deterrent effect. Mainly just messes them up for the rest of their life (job prospects, etc)…

6. Questions
Question 1: Define the word 'deterrent'? Question 2: Do you think monetary fines for children is an effective deterrent? Why/Why not? Do some online research, especially through the Hot Topics website on the NSW library site. Question 3: What is a control order? Question 4: The 5th slide refers to a book about control orders written in Do you think this book is for the use of control orders for children? Why/Why not? Question 5: Make a note of all the different penalties children's could face and what they are. These are in a simple table on page 111 of the textbook. We will go in depth through these in the next lesson.