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Victoria - Legislation

Children's Court Act 1956 (1957 - 1959)

From
1957
To
1959
Categories
Principal Act
Website
http://corrigan.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/hist_act/cca1956176/

The Children's Court Act 1956 (No. 6053) resulted from new thinking in regard to the problem of 'juvenile delinquency', and made some important changes to sentencing and to the numbers of offenders who also became wards. It commenced on 1 January 1957, and repealed the Children's Court Act 1928 (No.3653). The Children's Court Act 1958 (Vic) ( No. 6218), repealed this Act on 1 April 1959.

Details

In Victoria, the first Children's Court was established in 1906. Before this date, children were dealt with in the same courts as adults.

With the passage of Children's Court Act 1956, the sentence of whipping was finally abolished.

Offenders under the age of 15 could not be sentenced to detention but could become state wards, where it was the usual practice for them to be detained initially. Those aged over 14 could be sentenced to detention and were only to be admitted to state wardship in future on the basis of a care and protection application, not on the basis of their offending. Offenders over the age of 15 could be committed to a juvenile school for up to 2 years and could be placed in the Department's custody for the same period. Offenders over the age of 16 could still, if there was no other effective alternative, be sentenced to imprisonment.

The Children's Court Act 1956 also established a Children's Court Clinic which provided the court with expert psychiatric and psychological assessments, as well as physical assessments, in line with contemporary thinking that juvenile delinquency was best understood as a psychiatric syndrome.

Timeline

 1906 - 1915 Children's Court Act 1906
       1915 - 1928 Children's Court Act 1915
             1929 - 1957 Children's Court Act 1928
                   1957 - 1959 Children's Court Act 1956
                         1959 - 1974 Children's Court Act 1958
                               1974 - 1992 Children's Court Act 1973
                                     1991 - 2007 Children and Young Persons Act 1989
                                           2007 - Children, Youth and Families Act 2005

Related Glossary Terms

Publications

Online Resources

Sources used to compile this entry: Victorian Government, 'Victorian Government Submission to the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care (Submission 173)', in Inquiry into Institutional Care: Submissions received as at 17/03/05, July 2003, http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Completed_inquiries/2004-07/inst_care/submissions/sublist; Law Research Service, Melbourne Law School, Law Library, The University of Melbourne. 'Find and Connect Project - Victoria Legislation', 13 December 2013, held in the project files at the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre.

Prepared by: Cate O'Neill