Two prominent Hunter lawyers agree Australia should raise the age of criminal responsibility, as The St Vincent de Paul Society this week renewed its call for change.
Across the nation, a person as young as 10 years old can be charged with a criminal offence.
There have been ongoing calls to raise the minimum age, which have ramped-up in recent years amid criticism from the United Nations' committee on children's rights.
The St Vincent de Paul Society said it wanted the minimum age lifted to 14 years old - and that it was particularly important for First Nations children.
"In NSW, just under a quarter of adult prisoners are First Nations people and so are more than half of juvenile detainees," St Vinnies NSW CEO Jack de Groot said.
"Contact with the criminal justice system as a child often leads to a lifetime of disadvantage.
"These kids are not only less likely to finish their education, they are also very likely to reoffend."
Hunter solicitor and lecturer at the University of Newcastle Legal Centre Daniel Matas said on Friday raising the age was "well overdue" and most children under 14 could not fully comprehend the implications of their actions.
Mr Matas said putting them in detention had adverse impacts on cognitive development and often led to reoffending and entrenchment in the criminal justice system.
"This is a long established concerning trend," he said.
"The current law has the greatest impact on Australia's Indigenous youth who are locked up at 17 times the rate of non-Indigenous children.
"Australia's current laws are out of step with international standards with the United Nations repeatedly voicing its criticism of Australian laws in this respect."
Treasurer of Criminal Defence Lawyers NSW and local criminal lawyer Drew Hamilton said there were more than 600 children between 10 and 13 years old in detention across the country - more than 60 per cent of those identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
"While it is recognised that offending by young children should not go unaddressed, criminalising children for their behaviour at such a young age is largely ineffective at preventing future offending behaviour," he said.
"It simply must be asked, could you be held responsible for what you did when you were 10 years of age?"
