March 13, 2010: Age Of Criminal Responsibility
Maggie Atkinson, the Children's Commissioner for England, has made the following response to the 'Times' article today which noted her views on the age of criminal responsibility:
"I wish to be clear and to put into context my views on such terrible atrocities. Some children and young people do commit terrible crimes and are a danger to themselves and to others."
"It is right therefore that these children are contained in secure settings as in the case of James Bulger's killers and more recently the horrific case in Edlington. I empathise with the pain and anguish felt by all the families of the victims involved. Children who carry out such atrocities and other serious offences need to understand the severity of their actions. They should undertake intense programmes appropriate to their age in secure facilities where they are helped to make positive and lasting changes to their behaviour."
"The age of criminal responsibility in England is one the lowest in Europe. The statistics show that we are in danger of criminalising too many children and young people by locking them up for committing far less serious crime."
The Commissioner had told the Times that children should be better protected by the criminal justice system. She had commented the the age of the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales (currently 10 years old) was too low:
"... it should certainly be moved up to 12. In some European countries it’s 14. People may be offenders but they are also children. Even the most hardened of youngsters who have committed some very difficult crimes are not beyond being frightened.”
With regard to the murder of Jamie Bulger, she told the Times that his killers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, themselves children, should simply not have been tried in an adult court:
“What they did was exceptionally unpleasant and the fact that a little boy ended up dead is not something that the nation can easily forget. But they shouldn’t have been tried in an adult court because they were still children."
“In most Western European nations they have a completely different way of intervening with youngsters who’ve committed crime. Most of their approaches are more therapeutic, more family and community-based, more about reparation than simply locking somebody up.”
The role of the Children's Commissioner was created by the Children Act 2004, and is there to promote the views of children and young people from birth to 18 (up to 21 for young people in care or with mental health problems).