Children's Court of Victoria

The Children’s Court of Victoria is a statutory court created in Victoria, Australia. The court deals with criminal offences committed by children aged between 10 and 17 and with proceedings concerning children under the age of 17 relating to the care and protection of children.

The treatment of juvenile offenders in the colony of Victoria reflected the system of criminal law inherited from England. There was nothing unusual in that as the law of Australia at that time were heavily influenced by the social norms of English society. Children criminals were treated no differently than adult criminals, and there was little distinction in the way penalties were imposed. Children were liable to the same harsh penalties as adults, such as flogging, imprisonment and even death. The Judicial Commission of New South Wales cites an example of one English judge who, after condemning a 10-year-old boy to death, described the boy as “a proper subject for capital punishment”. The commission also noted that on one day in 1815, five children aged between eight and 12 years were hanged for petty larceny in England.

Victoria in the early 1900s was making progress towards a more enlightened method of dealing with juvenile offenders. Some justices of the peace (called magistrates) informally treated children in different ways. One magistrate arranged for children to be flogged in private rather than endure a public one. Civic minded individuals volunteered or were prevailed upon to provide home in the country for wayward children. David McCullum notes that this was seen as a “ready made mechanism for the reform of habit”. Being diverted away from their “evil surroundings” would hopefully change the child’s course of life. Other individuals would act as a volunteer and become what court officials are now known as “probation officers” and provide information to magistrates about the child appearing before the court.

The Victorian government established the children's court in 1906 shortly after the creation of a similar court in New South Wales (see, the Children's Court of New South Wales). The Children’s Court Act 1906 provided that children's matters were to be dealt with separately from adult matters. The new law also established “probation officers” who were to provide information to the court on a child’s habits and conduct. This now formalised the previous voluntary basis of supervisions. However, probation officers continued to be volunteers until around 1916 when paid agents were employed to visit country homes. In 1906, the then children’s court dealt with 3,303 young people.

The present children’s court was established in 1989 under section 8 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1989 (Vic). The new court replaced the previous children’s court which operated as a division of the Magistrates Court of Victoria. The court was established following a committee report by Professor Terry Carney which made a number of recommendations concerning child welfare in Victoria.

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