{"id":832,"date":"2010-03-15T13:22:45","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T11:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=832"},"modified":"2010-03-15T13:28:47","modified_gmt":"2010-03-15T11:28:47","slug":"832","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=832","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Criminal Children<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Maggie Atkinson, the Children’s Commissioner for England raised an important point recently when she commented on on the age of criminal responsibility. Here it is the\u00a0lowest in Europe. She linked her remarks to the Bulger case, still so emotive that the Government immediately had to distance\u00a0itself from her remarks and an incenced James’s mother called for her sacking. Dr Atkinson was, however, heard. It is important to move away from the dreadful murder of the little boy which stills appalls the nation and look at the wider point.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt whatever that an adult criminal court is no place for children. There is also no doubt that rehabilitating juvenile offenders who have taken a very wrong turn in their lives requires a huge investment for many years of public funds.\u00a0It is important to understand that the difference between right and wrong is obvious to youngsters brought up in a loving home, but where there is little or no competent parenting, family cohesion or even love, the line is far less clear. The old moral authority of religion is now off the public agenda in most schools\u00a0 in which potential offenders\u00a0play little part and gain scant benefit.<\/p>\n

Before setting the age, we need to change the Courts. I have advocated for some time that Family Courts which judge issues relating to family disputes and care orders should become Inquisitorial rather than the present Adversarial and should have their own investigating officers. The same arrangement should apply\u00a0to\u00a0what we could call Young People’s Courts to which all serious wrongdoing up to age sixteen should be channelled. After an enlightened and just legal process there must be a rehabilitation programme which works, so that those found guilty gain an opportunity to repay society by leading blameless upstanding lives as useful members of society, once rehabilitated and set free.<\/p>\n

So far this does not seem to be happening in the case of Jon\u00a0Venables. Maybe it cannot because he is beyond redemption. A robust system would\u00a0show that also.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Criminal Children Dr Maggie Atkinson, the Children’s Commissioner for England raised an important point recently when she commented on on the age of criminal responsibility. Here it is the\u00a0lowest in Europe. She linked her remarks to the Bulger case, still so emotive that the Government immediately had to distance\u00a0itself from her remarks and an incenced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malcolm-blair-robinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}