Recasting the law on a more merciful basis: juvenile justice then and now

Selden Society lecture series Australia

The first Selden Society lecture for 2025, Recasting the law on a more merciful basis: juvenile justice then and now, will be presented by Dr Robyn Blewer from the Griffith Law School.

In 1897, a Perth newspaper reported on the distressed state of two young boys who’d been remanded in custody in the local watchhouse for stealing a pigeon: ‘the punishment, even if guilty ... must have been greater than many a women beater or hardened thief suffers. If the system is to blame, it is high time that it was recast on a more merciful basis.’

This lecture explores the youth crime crisis of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the age of criminal responsibility, detention of children in watchhouses, and the housing crisis were subjects of debate and potential reform for a more compassionate approach to juvenile justice. Political, legislative and judicial responses were cohesive and introduced children's courts across the country, contributing to the 150-year legacy shaping our conversations today.

About the speaker

Robyn is a lecturer at Griffith Law School, specialising in criminal trial procedure and vulnerable witness testimony. She completed a Master of Criminology and Criminal Justice in 2012, and her doctoral research focused on Australia’s child witness law as part of The Prosecution Project. In 2019, Robyn became Director of the Griffith University Innocence Project. She also teaches Criminal Law courses and has experience in commercial litigation and volunteering with Salvos Legal Humanitarian.

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