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The Parliament of Victoria in Australia is set to go through the second reading of the Spent Convictions Bill early next year. The new law is aimed at preventing discrimination based on previous convictions to provide youths an opportunity to move past minor offenses.
The bill was introduced this year as a means to ensure convictions are spent automatically or on application, while also limiting the collection, disclosure and use of data on such spent convictions. Under the new law, convictions of children will be considered spent regardless of their seriousness, as long as the offenders are aged under 15 years. Similarly, persons convicted of non-serious crimes would be eligible to have their convictions considered spent. Persons over 15 who committed serious crimes would be allowed to apply for a spent conviction order, so long as they were imprisoned for only 5 years or less.
The law defines a serious conviction as one for which a term of imprisonment or detention of more than 30 months is imposed; a conviction for a sexual offence; or a conviction for a serious violence offence. Spent convictions will not form part of a person’s criminal record, and they would not be required to disclose the existence of those convictions in job applications. The law also makes it a crime for unauthorized persons to disclose a person’s previous convictions.
Victoria Legal Aid lauded the parliament in October for introducing the bill, saying the law will be instrumental in providing an opportunity for minor offenders to find work and “move on from the cycle” of imprisonment.
However, questions have been raised on the overall benefit of this law. Victims of crimes have termed the law as unfair and say it would perpetuate injustice on victims. Employers also have stated that they should have access to the records of prospective employees. The law currently only permits disclosure of spent convictions to certain government bodies and imposes penalties on any improper disclosures.
The post Australia state to consider bill wiping clean criminal records of young offenders regardless of crime severity appeared first on JURIST - News - Legal News & Commentary.
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The bill was introduced this year as a means to ensure convictions are spent automatically or on application, while also limiting the collection, disclosure and use of data on such spent convictions. Under the new law, convictions of children will be considered spent regardless of their seriousness, as long as the offenders are aged under 15 years. Similarly, persons convicted of non-serious crimes would be eligible to have their convictions considered spent. Persons over 15 who committed serious crimes would be allowed to apply for a spent conviction order, so long as they were imprisoned for only 5 years or less.
The law defines a serious conviction as one for which a term of imprisonment or detention of more than 30 months is imposed; a conviction for a sexual offence; or a conviction for a serious violence offence. Spent convictions will not form part of a person’s criminal record, and they would not be required to disclose the existence of those convictions in job applications. The law also makes it a crime for unauthorized persons to disclose a person’s previous convictions.
Victoria Legal Aid lauded the parliament in October for introducing the bill, saying the law will be instrumental in providing an opportunity for minor offenders to find work and “move on from the cycle” of imprisonment.
However, questions have been raised on the overall benefit of this law. Victims of crimes have termed the law as unfair and say it would perpetuate injustice on victims. Employers also have stated that they should have access to the records of prospective employees. The law currently only permits disclosure of spent convictions to certain government bodies and imposes penalties on any improper disclosures.
The post Australia state to consider bill wiping clean criminal records of young offenders regardless of crime severity appeared first on JURIST - News - Legal News & Commentary.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.