The Prisons Minister has rejected proposals to increase the age at which children are forced to take responsibility for their crimes. However, Crispin Blunt has called for a “restorative justice” system, in which young offenders are forced to apologise for their actions, as opposed to receiving a harsh punishment. New proposals coined by a leading think-tank created by Iain Duncan Smith claim that no child offender should be prosecuted for committing crimes until they reach the age of 12. In England and Wales, the age of criminal responsibility currently stands at ten.
Mr. Blunt stated that he believed that children aged ten were able to recognise their wrongdoings yet claimed that this did not mean that he supported the automatic prosecution of child offenders, adding that he was an “ardent” restorative justice supporter. He wants the courts of law to issue a greater number of “referral orders”, which would see young offenders apologise for their crimes and make amends for their actions. In return for doing so, their criminal record would be deleted after a year.
Experts believe that new research has effectively shown that children under the age of 13 have not yet reached the maturity level required to gauge adequately the consequences associated with their actions. A report published by Barnardo’s in 2010 urged the Government to increase the age at which children were prosecuted to 12 years of age, except in the most serious of cases.
The childcare law and criminal law solicitors at Duncan Lewis can work to protect children against prosecution.