“Children aren’t criminals”
a letter published in The Times today, under the leadership of the just umbrella & signed by academics and major agencies in the field publicly announces the start of a new campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility in the United Kingdom and Eire to at least  14 to bring the criminal justice systems concerned in line with the rest of western Europe.

The Times
October 19, 2007
Young offenders
The British approach to very young offenders is inappropriate

Sir, Later today five boys will appear in the Central Criminal Court for sentencing, having been convicted of manslaughter after a full adult criminal trial. They were aged between 10 and 12 at the time of the incident concerned. The whole court procedure and mode of trial demonstrates an inappropriate British approach to very young offenders.

In the rest of Western Europe such offences, however dreadful, are treated as social problems requiring educational and psychological intervention, with the offender, and, if necessary, their families, in order to give them the best chance of growing into responsible adults. Children can be detained where it is necessary to protect the public from serious harm but not to punish their crimes.

Our approach is exemplified by extraordinarily low ages of criminal responsibility. It is only 10 in England and Wales, but in Italy, Germany and Spain it is 14, in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden 15, in Portugal 16 and in Belgium and Luxembourg 18. One result is that we lock up 23 children per 100,000 population, compared with 6 in France, 2 in Spain and 0.2 in Finland.

The time would appear to be ripe for radical reform of official attitudes to antisocial behaviour by the very young, and the creation of more effective and appropriate responses to delinquency. A start must be made by raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14.

Stephen Jakobi
The Just Umbrella

Rob Allen
Director, International Centre for Prison Studies, King’s College

Frances Crook
Howard League for Penal Reform

Glyn Farrow
Head of Children Law UK

Professor Barry Goldson
School of Sociology and Social Policy, The University of Liverpool

Professor Carolyn Hamilton
Director, Children’s Legal Centre, University of Essex

Annette Lawson

Mike Thomas
Chair, Association of Youth Offending Team Managers

Kevin Williams
Chief Executive, TACT