Criminal age of responsibility

The Herald reports on how the Government is planning to increase the age of adult criminal responsibility from 17 to 18, so we come into line with other developed countries and meet UN requirements.

The Police Association have said:

Police Association president Greg O’Connor has slammed the move as “absolutely and utterly ludicrous”.

“The age at which offenders are committing serious crime is dropping, not rising,” he said.

I’m curious as to the claim that all the other countries have the age ofcriminal responsibility at 18. Now it’s only Wikipedia, but a table there says:

UK (Scotland) 8
United States 10
Australia 10
UK (England) 10
UK (Wales) 10
Canada 12
Ireland 12
France 13
Poland 13
Austria 14
Estonia 14
Germany 14
Italy 14
Japan 14
Romania 14
Finland 15
Denmark 15
Norway 15
Sweden 15
Iceland 15

Now this may be more referring to the age at which you can be prosecuted (14 in NZ) but either way it shows we are at the top end of our peers already.