State and territory governments have no excuse not to act on a report calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised, advocates say.

Across most of Australia, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is legislated at 10 years of age.

Studies have shown the younger a child is when first having contact with the justice system, the more likely they go on to reoffend.

Work on examining whether to raise the age began in November 2018, but was not publicly released until late on Friday after a virtual meeting of attorneys-general.

Draft report suggests lifting age to 14

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, health, legal and human rights organisations on Monday welcomed the release of the draft report, noting its primary recommendation was “to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years without exceptions”.

Alternative options were to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 with exceptions for serious crimes, or raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 and the minimum age of detention to 14 with exceptions for serious offences.

The Human Rights Law Centres’s Monique Hurley said the report added to a “mountain of evidence”.

“Children belong in playgrounds and schools, never in prisons and police cells,” she said.

Generation of children ‘locked behind bars’

“Every day that our chief law officers refuse to act on this straightforward reform, they are condemning a generation of children to the harm inherent in being locked away behind bars.

“Governments across Australia must act now and raise the age to at least 14 years old.”

Jamie McConnachie, from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, said structural change was needed.

“We stand with communities who have demanded stronger, more ambitious targets to be set to end the incarceration of our children,” she said.

The report also called on states to re-examine their prevention, early intervention and diversionary measures, boost community and family programs and give police greater powers to refer children to appropriate agencies or services.

The Northern Territory recently passed laws to raise the age to 12, in the wake of the earlier ACT decision to take the age to 14.

-AAP