The recall to prison last month of Jon Venables, one of the killers of James Bulger, has raised a huge number of questions for debate.
Today, the Children's Commissioner, Dr Maggie Atkinson, is widely reported as saying that a child under 12 should not be prosecuted and held responsible for their actions.
In particular, according to Dr Atkinson, Venables and his accomplice, Robert Thompson, should not have been tried in an adult court. However, such was the outrage at their crimes at the time of James' murder in 1993, that the public would not have settled for anything less. The idea of these two boys being cocooned in the juvenille system would not have sat easily with a horrified British public out for blood.
I am in favour of raising the age of criminality. At the age of ten, children may know the difference between right and wrong, but are they emotionally and mentally equipped to deal with the enormity of their actions?
The fact that Venables is now in prison, having supposedly gone through years of rehabilitation in a secure unit, may provide the answer. I believe the reason behind his re-offending lies in an intense dislike of and a totally inability to live with, himself over what he did.
Dr Atkinson offers a perspective on this issue, that I believe, this country should take notice of.
No comments:
Post a Comment