A major inquiry into Victoria's justice system has backed calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility and pushed for significant changes to bail, sentencing and policing.
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Parliament's legal and social issues committee on Thursday submitted its report on the state's criminal justice system, making 100 recommendations.
It recommended the Victorian government raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility, currently 10 years old, to at least 14.
The committee also found a lack of data in key areas of the justice system and recommended broader data collection to provide better insight into how the system is functioning.
Crime rates in Victoria rose by 21 per cent between 2012 and 2021, with the biggest increases in assault, sexual offences, stalking, procedural and drug offences.
While the prison population rose by more than 57 per cent from 2010 to 2020, with the female population growing the fastest and Aboriginal women disproportionately represented at 14 per cent.
The inquiry recommended amending the Sentencing Act to allow courts to impose home detention and take into account factors affecting Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people.
On policing, the inquiry found female domestic violence victims were regularly misidentified as the primary aggressor and recommended additional police training and education.
It also recommended independent oversight, better transparency and accountability of Victoria Police bail decisions, after finding bail reforms led to a significant increase to the remand population.
Other proposals included addressing the drivers of crime, such as social disadvantage; increasing funding for services assisting prisoners; investing in early intervention and restorative justice; and expanding victim support programs.
Committee chair Fiona Patten said the inquiry showed how broken Victoria's justice system was.
"If we're going to keep our community safe, if we're going to stop recidivism, if we are going to stop crime all together and therefore reduce the number of victim survivors that we have in our community, then we have to do things differently," she told reporters on Thursday.
Premier Daniel Andrews said he would prefer to continue with a national approach in raising the age of criminal responsibility.
"On this issue, we are very much invested in a national process and we think a national outcome is better," he said on Thursday.
"If it seems that there's not going to be a national outcome, then of course we will look at this issue."
Australia's attorneys-general agreed to raise the age from 10 to 12 in November after the federal government faced pressure from more than 30 United Nations countries.
Several weeks later, the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria wrote to Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes, urging her to legislate the age be raised to 14.
Victorian opposition MPs Cathrine Burnett-Wake and Craig Ondarchie supported raising the age to 12, in a minority report on the inquiry.
The Liberal MPs supported calls for better justice system data collection, but had concerns about how it is collected. They said any changes to bail or parole laws must be informed by "clear, objective, expert advice".
The Justice Reform Initiative welcomed most of the recommendations, but said community-led programs were needed in sentencing, rather than home detention.
Jesuit Social Services called for a bipartisan approach to reduce the number of people who are incarcerated.
Australian Associated Press
