To Raise or Not to Raise: An Experimental Test of Community Support for Increasing the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility in New South Wales, Australia

While research has identified a disconnect between the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) and public perceptions of criminal culpability among young people, no study has examined how offender characteristics influence support for reform using an experimental design. To address this, this study presents the first experimental test of public attitudes toward raising the MACR, offering a novel contribution to debates on youth justice reform in Australia and internationally. Drawing on data from 298 participants who completed a factorial survey experiment, this study varies offender age (10, 12, 14, or 16) and offending history (first-time versus repeat) to explore support for limiting criminal justice responses to warnings or cautions among community members. A multivariate logistic regression indicated greater public support toward younger offenders (OR = 1.09), with support declining as age increased. Prior offending was associated with lower levels of support (OR = 0.07). Women and younger respondents showed the highest level of support (OR = 6.15), but their support declined more sharply as the offender aged. These findings provide insights into the conditional nature of public support for MACR reform and underline the need for experimental methodology to be utilised more widely when estimating support for youth justice-related topics.