World

Scots criminal age to go up to 12

by generaldecay | March 1, 2009 at 12:03 am

85 views | 4 Recommendations | 2 comments

The age of criminal responsibility in Scotland is to be raised from eight to 12, ministers have confirmed. It will bring Scotland into line with most of Europe, but the Scottish Government said the rise would not mean "letting off" younger offenders. Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said it was more appropriate to deal with them in the children's hearings system.

This is interesting news (for me). There is much debate about what is an acceptable age of criminal responsibility. The age of criminal responsibility is 10 in England. This means that a 10 year old can be arrested, tried, and convicted for a criminal offence. Many experts say that 10 is too young. Indeed, in the rest of Europe, the age of criminal responsibility is usually around 14, 15, or 16.

If convicted at age 10, there are massive repercussions for reconviction. Rather than acting as a deterrent for further offending, large numbers of convictions in childhood and adolescence generally leads to increased offending.I think England and Wales could learn from this change in Scotland.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

mudricky

at 01:44 on March 1st, 2009

I think 12 is the correct age. It should be around the same age you go to High School.

generaldecay

at 01:47 on March 1st, 2009

In many ways, I think that 12 is too young. The notion of criminal responsbility is directly related to the agency an individual can have in his/ her own actions. I'm not convinced (and the research doesn't convince me) that even a 12 or 13 year old can be completely agentic in what he/ she does. This doesn't mean that they should be absolved of responsibility for their actions - rather that it is not appropriate to introduce them to the criminal justice system either.

Thanks for the recommendation and comment, mudricky.