At what point should a child be tried as an adult? Imogen Barr

At what point should a child be tried as an adult?

This article was published in the ATP Today magazine

Imogen Barr Lower Sixth

Emperor Meiji

Research shows that children have the ability to know the difference between right and wrong even before they reach the age of two, and scientists have found that even babies aged between 19 and 21 months understand fairness and can apply it in different situations. If this is true, why are defendants of children who break the law using their ‘lack of maturity and knowledge of consequences’ as an excuse for why they committed the crime?

The age of criminal responsibility in the UK is 10 years old which means that anyone who has committed a crime under the age of 10 cannot be arrested or charged with the crime. Children between 10 and 17 can be arrested and taken to court if they have committed a crime, however they are treated differently to adults and are dealt with by youth courts; they have different sentences and do not go to adult prisons if they are convicted.

There are lots of cases, outside of the UK, where children have been tried as adults, such as in Pennsylvania. Murder automatically moves a child into an adult court regardless of their age. This is because their view is that murder and other heinous crimes are done with intent and that children are fully aware that they are committing the crime. However, Andy Peaden, the head of Leeds Youth Justice Service (representing all heads of youth offending teams in England & Wales) speaking about the Jamie Bulger case (1993) whether, if Thompson and Venables had been tried as adults, they would they have recommitted or not.

said that 10 was “ridiculously young to be prosecuting children” and the age should be raised. “When you work with young people on a regular basis it’s absolutely apparent that 10-year-olds are not able to be wholly held to account for the stuff they do”.

This leads to the question of whether children actually know the difference between right and wrong. And even if they do, does this mean that they should be tried as adults? What determines that when you hit 18, you are now legally an adult? Is it when they can legally buy alcohol? Or drive a car? Or buy a house? The human brain does not fully develop until the age of 25. Should this be the age at which you become an adult? Or should it be a completely different age overall? It has been proven that the frontal lobe, which is extremely important in our decision making, doesn’t finish developing until many years after most cultures in the world consider you an adult. With children under 14, statistics show that there is a good reason to believe that they are cognitively immature enough that they aren’t thinking like an adult, but The Jamie Bulger case was a horrific by the time they reach 14, they should be. murder of a two-year-old boy by two 10-year-old boys (John Venables and Robert When you bring psychiatric problems into Thompson) who took him from his mother this, it becomes very clear that those with in a shopping centre in Liverpool. The these problems should not necessarily boys’ defendants claimed that the boys did receive the same punishment as those not fully understand the consequences of without them. Especially for mental their actions, and therefore should not be illnesses such as schizophrenia where a tried as harshly as they clearly did not know lot of their actions are uncontrollable and what they were therefore the person doing. However, Womack said, “the things that lead a The things that lead a kid to not care if themselves may not be fully aware of what they are doing kid to not care if they kill someone until they have done they kill someone make it very hard for them to be make it very hard for them to be part it. This could lead to part of society. of society. the answer that They don’t look at every case should be human life as being very valuable. They see looked at on a case by case basis and that themselves as…unimportant to the system. maybe age should not be the final factor Therefore, the system is unimportant to in deciding whether a ‘child’ is tried as an them.” In addition to this, Jon Venables ‘adult’. There are two things to consider; has reoffended since being given a new does their age impact their criminal identity and being let out of rehabilitation, responsibility, and does the person who has and many people think that the boys should committed the crime have any underlying have been treated with more punishments psychiatric problems. And then you can than with ‘rewards’ (rehabilitation) and that decide their ‘punishment’. the reason he has reoffended is because he was not punished enough. We must ask