following the UN report on the rights of the child issued today  

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we call for the immediate raising of the age of criminal responsibility to 12 as an interim measure, pending the outcome of the enquiry that government  promised us in February of this year and which  so far as we can judge has yet to commence.

 WE have obtained some statistics from the Youth Justice Board on the criminal activity of the 10 and 11 year olds our government persist in designating as “youths.”

The activity disclosed is miniscule compared to older age cohorts.e.g in each of the years 2004 to 2006 only some 800  10 and 11 year olds were found guilty by the juvenile court system of any category of offence.  In older two year cohorts  of 14 to 17, the comparable figure is 20,000.  Or, put another way, only 1% of criminal cases before the juvenile courts concern this age group

  Whatever the merits or demerits  of the current juvenile justice system, its codes of procedure and criminal law it must be conceded that  a “one fits all” system that applies these basics to the immature pre-adolescent  10 year old ,  in the same manner as with the mature 17-year-old is an affront to common sense as well as all national and international experience and evidence-based practice.