Legal advocates have welcomed a report's recommendations into a presumption that children under 14 are "incapable of evil", urging a state not to tinker with the long-standing principle, despite a drop in youth convictions.

A NSW review of doli incapax was released on Saturday after it was launched by the state Labor government in May amid a national debate about youth crime.

Latin for incapable of evil, doli incapax is a legal presumption that children between the ages of 10 and 14 do not sufficiently understand the difference between right and wrong to be held criminally responsible.

Led by former Supreme Court judge Geoffrey Bellew and retired NSW police deputy commissioner Jeffrey Loy, the review acknowledged the test for rebutting doli incapax imposed a "high threshold".

But the

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