Attorney-General Kyam Maher will introduce a bill to parliament this week that would punish adults with 15 years’ jail if they recruit people under 18 to engage in criminal activity.

If the crime the child was incited to perform carries a maximum sentence greater than 15 years, the adult would be exposed to the greater of the two penalties.

Maher said the law change came about as a result of engagement for a discussion paper proposing to raise the age of criminal responsibility in SA, and not in response to any specific event or a rise in youth crime.

“If you’re an adult and you’re recruiting children, particularly young children, to commit crimes, then you ought to face very severe punishments,” he said.

Similar offences have already been implemented in other states, with Victoria imposing a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

A carve out means the offence will only apply to adults over 21 to prevent older teens who associate with children of a similar age being captured in the legislation.

For example, if a 19-year-old is part of a group that also includes 17-year-olds, they will be exempt from the offence.

The offence will also only apply to children who commit a major indictable offence; that is, crimes that carry a maximum penalty of at least five years in prison.

That means common crimes such as shoplifting, which has jumped in prevalence by almost a third over the past 12 months, will not be captured by the new law, unless the value of good stolen exceeds $30,000.

– AAP