According to You Want to Do What? the criminal age of responsibility, or the age at which people must take responsibility for their crimes is ten in England and Wales, and eight in Scotland.
These ages are very young, especially when they are compared with other countries. For example in USA the age of criminal responsibility is sixteen/eighteen, in Germany it’s fourteen, France thirteen, and Italy fifteen.
My question to you is, at what age do you think the criminal age of responsibility should be?
Personally, I think twelve sounds like a good age. At twelve, a child’s morals should be well ingrained, they should easily be able to distinguish between right and wrong, even if under peer pressure.
What do you think?
6 Responses to “Littlemummy Discusses The Age of Criminal Responsibility”
I think even 12 is a bit young.
Having worked with kids that age I would say it’s a time when peer pressure is at its most heightened, as well as the time when hormones are raging and the child is battling to forge their identity.
Years 9 and 10 seem to be really tough years for teenagers (and their teachers) while by Year 11 most of them seem human again and more settled.
Good post Littlemummy.
Be interesting to see what everyone else thinks.
I think it depends very much on the child - htere are some very savvy, very young kids out there who know what they are doing is wrong and conversely there are some teenagers who have not yet developed any sort of sense of right from wrong for whatever reason. When they caught the two little boys who killed Jamie Bulger it was very aparent that one of them knew exactly what he was doing but hte other had been dragged along and really didn’t understand until it was too late.
This makes me think of the tragic murder of James Bulger. His killers were both aged ten. It depends of the child but in their cases they were criminals at ten and deserved to be treated as such.
Tough question! It’s strange, but the Jamie Bulger murder came to mind immediately for me too. I think it depends on the individual child to some extent, some children mature more quickly than others. To a degree, it also depends on the crime - surely even young children should understand that you don’t go around murdering one another!! On the other hand, a hungry street-child might have to mature a bit before he/she understands that you can’t simply help yourself to food in a shop.
Basically I think each case should be judged on the unique set of circumstances when it comes to children under 13 or so.
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Howdy
I would like to introduce myself, my name is Sherry. I am a mother of two and a full time
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