Shadowing Practice: How young is too young for criminal responsibility? | A Current Affair - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Bad behaviour has consequences.
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Now that's a simple discipline that helps parents raise good kids and of course it also sends criminals to jail.
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But children as young as 10 are falling through the cracks, trashing property and terrorising people because they're untouchable and it may become even harder to punish them.
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It's a destructive shopping centre rampage, the kind of damage normally inflicted by a car in a ram raid.
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But it's an out of control child causing this chaos.
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Bystanders and authorities cautiously go toe to toe with the boy
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and astoundingly the 12 year old appears to have the upper hand.
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Here he hurls a shard of glass at the woman filming the footage.
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I was traumatised.
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Absolutely.
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The boy's teenage friends join in, using a trolley to smash more glass.
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Jenny Fenwick was the frightened shopper behind the camera.
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Dumbfounded to tell you the truth.
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I'm like what the hell's going on here?
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Why don't the The security guard stopped them and then I learned later that they're not allowed to touch them.
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There needs to be consequences.
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I definitely want better discipline for these kids.
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I want them to be charged.
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In our major capital cities, homes and retailers are increasingly being targeted by child vandals and thieves.
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Oh, God.
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That is my pot plant.
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I put succulents in that.
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Ooh, they're banging on the glass.
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Organised balls are being held in shopping centre car parks
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and brazen apparent shoplifting is being filmed by the young alleged perpetrators and uploaded to social media.
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Are you causing problems around here?
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Obviously.
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Obviously?
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What do you mean?
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Oh, just doing this that.
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But there could soon be even fewer consequences for delinquent children.
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You may not know it, but there's a quiet nationwide push to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 16.
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Under the changes, it's likely offenders younger than 16 would automatically not be prosecuted.
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Tonight we have the debate.
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Is it a good idea and is it in the best interest for the children involved and their victims?
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Our laws are currently so outdated
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that children who aren't old enough to have a Facebook account are old enough to be sent to prison.
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One of the people we forget in all this debate, and they're always forgotten, what about the victims?
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What about the victims?
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Security cameras are rolling at this Western Sydney home, but these kids don't care.
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Watch as one of the children bangs on the door to see if anyone's inside.
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And the other two are very close to our door.
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The security door.
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The sensor light has gone off.
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They come in.
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As the family cowers in the home, the boys attempt to smash their way through the front door.
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No luck and they're out of ideas, but intent on causing damage.
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They turn their attention to the car in the driveway.
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In an act of mindless vandalism, they throw a pot plant at the vehicle's windscreen, smashing it.
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Ooh!
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See, I just repaired that car and see what they are doing to it.
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Then, one of the boys throws a statue at the vehicle.
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My figurine.
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Yeah.
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He picks up something from the garden and hurls it at another car parked out the front
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as his mate throws a glass bottle at the other vehicle.
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They appear to leave, but the destruction is not over.
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They come back.
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Watch as the young teenager chugs from a glass bottle before using it to smash one of the car's rear windows.
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Well, I'd say they would be 14, 15-year-olds, or maybe 16.
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The following morning, homeowners Harry and Elizabeth inspect the damage.
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Tonight, I'm not going to stay here.
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We haven't done anything wrong.
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I don't know why we are targeted.
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The February attack was the second time their home had been vandalised.
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The couple say they've been receiving next to no assistance from police
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and they're now too frightened to sleep at the Blacktown property, instead choosing to stay with family in Baulkham Hills.
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We give consequences to our children when they misbehave.
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So these kids do things like adults, they should also reap the consequences of their bad behaviour.
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ACA obtained all of this exclusive footage over the course of several months as part of our investigation.
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CCTV from this property in the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne shows a confrontation between a young masked teenager and the adult homeowner.
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He chases the teen from the property but the boy returns with his scooter.
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Later a teenager is filmed smashing the man's letterbox.
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Brisbane mum Melissa Royal from Victoria Point says her family is repeatedly being targeted by a large group of delinquent children.
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They have threatened to stab my children.
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They have set fires in the street.
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They've graffitied vehicles.
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We're stuck.
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We don't know what to do.
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Here you can see some of the youths attempt to kick in Melissa's fence.
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It's absolutely like they're adults.
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You know, if I went out and kicked somebody's fence or threatened to stab them, I'd be in jail.
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But it's not just homes.
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Kid crooks are increasingly causing chaos at the nation's shopping centres too.
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The cop has come there and said we wouldn't even ask a question.
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Jenny drives all over Darwin to avoid going to Palmerston Shopping Centre where the 12-year-old boy lost control after consuming alcohol.
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This isn't the only occurrence.
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This is the only one that I have on tape.
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There's a couple of shop owners that have been sleeping in their shops
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because all the police have said to them is that they need to beef up their own security.
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Fuck, not so tough, how are ya?
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The 12 year old was eventually restrained and led away but was later released.
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In Victoria Geelong shopping strips are considered youth crime hotspots.
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Like where else are they going to hang out?
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There's no other real fun places in Geelong.
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Shouldn't you be at school?
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No, I don't need to go to school.
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You look like you're of school age.
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I'm too smart for school.
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Too smart for school.
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Especially around town, like, there's places where I don't feel as safe.
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This Geelong teenager filmed himself drinking on the streets.
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He and a friend keep the camera rolling as they enter an office work store.
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Gotta put the bourbon away.
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What follows appears to be a shoplifting spree and they later upload the video to social media.
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They don't seem to be afraid of breaking the law nowadays, they know that nothing will happen.
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A youth crime wave at Melbourne's Fountain Gate shopping centre has triggered calls for more security.
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Westfield worker Kessa tells ACA the constant theft at her store is driving customers away.
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100% it's affecting our sales quite a lot.
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The other day there was a fight here, some chick got jumped by some Sudanese people.
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This teenager says shoppers shouldn't be frightened of the young people who congregate at the centre.
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Some of them have calmed down a bit, some of them used to steal some cars, like do home invasions, I don't know, but they're all done with that stuff, they're growing up.
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Ideally I want to see them punished, you know, you've done a crime, you need to get punished for it.
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You've seen the issue, heard from the victims, but what about the consequences?
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Right now the age of criminal responsibility in Australia is 10 years old, but the country's top lawmakers,
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including Federal Attorney General Christian Porter, are currently considering whether that age should be raised to as old as 16.
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Doctors are clear that when it comes to children who are under the age of 14, their brain has not developed enough to the point that they should be held criminally responsible.
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The kids of today, with their exposure to social media, have much greater understanding of what is right
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and wrong at a much younger age than what perhaps my generation and some that follow behind have.
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The Human Rights Law Centre's Ruth Barson is going head to head with former Victoria Police Inspector Ivan Ray.
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The argument that comes out all the time we hear is don't send young people to jail, you'll only make them worse.
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Worse than what?
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For goodness sake.
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Recent reporting from the ABC revealed dozens of children, some as young as 10,
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are being held in the high-security Brisbane watch house near pedophiles and drug addicts because Queensland's youth detention centres are full.
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What we know is that right now, every year in Australia, 600 children under the age of 14 are locked up behind bars
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and around 10,000 children are prosecuted by the police, hauled before the courts and sentenced.
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It's only something like 1% or 1.5% or something that actually end up in jail.
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And there are sometimes really good reasons as to why they should.
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Ten-year-olds should be in classrooms and playgrounds.
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They shouldn't be in prison cells.
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The investigation into raising the age of criminal responsibility is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.
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Speaking Goals for This Clip
This video is ideal for IELTS speaking practice as it targets fluency in discussing complex social issues with clarity and emotional nuance. The dialogue includes real-world scenarios, debates, and personal accounts, helping learners practice structuring arguments, expressing shock, and asking rhetorical questions—key skills for IELTS speaking tasks. Additionally, the natural pacing and conversational tone make it perfect for shadow speak exercises, where you mimic the rhythm and intonation of native speakers to improve pronunciation and flow.
Phrase Bank
- "falling through the cracks" (to be overlooked or not supported)
- "go toe to toe with" (to confront directly)
- "have the upper hand" (to be in control of a situation)
- "dumbfounded to tell you the truth" (honestly shocked)
- "mindless vandalism" (destruction without purpose)
- "cower in the home" (to hide in fear)
- "quiet nationwide push" (a subtle, country-wide effort)
Fix Your Weak Spots
The video’s mix of casual speech and heated debate challenges learners to master shadowing technique by adapting to varying tones—from Jenny Fenwick’s frightened "what the hell's going on here?" to the firm "what about the victims?" This helps improve intonation shifts, stress on key words, and pausing for emphasis. For example, practicing the phrase "there needs to be consequences" with the same urgency as the speaker can refine your ability to convey conviction. Use this clip on a shadowing site to repeat short segments, focusing on matching the speed and emotion, which will strengthen your overall speaking rhythm and make your English sound more natural.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | they've been receiving · have been sleeping |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has gone · haven't done · have threatened |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was traumatised · be charged · being targeted |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | children who aren · people who congregate · children who are |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.