Sir Bert Preast

Too young to be a criminal?

I'm going to go with yes, 10 is too young to be a criminal. A ten year old throwing stones does not I believe think killing someone is a possible consequence, to him it's being naughty but not criminal.

However you've got other cases, the Bulger one springs to mind, where no 10 year old actually believes torturing a baby to death is simply naughtiness.

In Spain there are currently campaigns to lower the age to as low as 8, to deal with an increasing number of 10 year old career pickpockets who're currently absolutely immune to any form of punishment. So I'd also say a '3 strikes and you're out' type system is needed.

But on the whole, should the age of criminal responsibility be raised to say 14?

Jonny "Kid" Pilko

I'd have to say I disagree with you Bert.
It's still their fault that the man died, and they're old enough at 10 to know full well what they're doing by throwing stones at him.

For the last month I've been posting from a jail computer, as I was nicked for an incident involving condiments

Paul Bacon

You have to judge each case on its merits. You cant just have some magical age that once you hit it, you must take responsiblity for your actions.

But 10 year olds know a hell of alot more these days. Our neighbours kid is 8 and she is geting bullied already ffs

DJ

The criminal age in the Netherlands is higher than 18 or the Netherlands aren't in Europe
(both untrue btw).

It should depend on how adult the kid behaves, I think, and on the crime they did. Most of all, the parents/caretakers of the kid should be held responsible for their behaviour. Resulting in taking the kids from their custody whilst they are doing the time connected to the crime.
You can't watch your kid all the time, but I'm 100% sure and willing to take full responsibility should I prove to be wrong that my daughter wouldn't murder, injure or thieve from anyone.

Sir Bert Preast

That didn't happen when you were a kid? Was there some intermediate fluffy love generation I missed out on?

Sir Bert Preast

How do you test the kid's maturity?

And the problem in Spain is the kids know enough to not give their parents names or addresses when the police lift them. So an hour or two later they're back on the streets and literally nothing can be done.

Paul Bacon

That didn't happen when you were a kid? Was there some intermediate fluffy love generation I missed out on? </BLOCKQUOTE>

Bullying obviously happened, but i never saw any when i was that young. Bullying only started (that i saw) when you got to secondary school when the "big" kids would pick on the new ones

Sir Bert Preast

That they might be going to kill him?

DJ

That is of course ridiculously difficult. In order not to punish the ones who are too immature to realize they've done a crime, we'll have to err on the safe side, I suppose.

Let them go and follow them until they go home. They'll go hungry at some point

Sir Bert Preast

That didn't happen when you were a kid? Was there some intermediate fluffy love generation I missed out on? </BLOCKQUOTE>

Bullying obviously happened, but i never saw any when i was that young. Bullying only started (that i saw) when you got to secondary school when the "big" kids would pick on the new ones </BLOCKQUOTE>

According to my mother I was bullied by a girl in nursery school. /o\