Under criminal law of the UK, age plays a significant role. United Kingdom’s age of criminal liability is the age under which a child is considered to be unable to commit an offence. As per section 16 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1963, in the case of England and Wales the minimum age of criminal responsibility is ten years which is the lowest in comparison to other European nations like Germany, Sweden and Portugal. In England and wales, every child under the age of ten years are expected to be ‘doli incapax’ means unable to commit an offence. 

A child under the age of ten years will currently be accused of a crime and prosecuted by the police in the UK, which can lead to a criminal record throughout his or her life. After considering the psychological theory, it can be said that the Moral Assessment of the Child set down a theory of a children’s mind, which stated that they could not perform such tasks unless they are emotionally mature enough. On the other hand, in criminology, the labelling theory is the perspective of a sociological theory which is regarded to be as ‘symbolic interactionism’ where powerful persons and the state create criminality by labelling certain conducts as improper. These theorists concentrate on the responses of society members to criminality, which isolated them from other scholars of the time (Burke 2017).

By applying several theories, while the number of children in detention has fallen considerably in current years, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform, England and Wales still have the maximum child imprisonment rates in western Europe. According to researchers, hundreds of elementary school children in England and Wales are criminalized inappropriately because of the ‘extremely young’ age of criminality. Youth leaders, the justice system, watchdogs of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and lawmakers encourage the government to increase the child’s minimum age by at least two years, from 10 to 12, for the conviction of a crime (Herring 2016). The EHRC told the United Nations Committee against Abuse that it could have ‘detrimental’ impact on the well-being and growth of children being reported to the judiciary and that this ‘criminalization’ could make them a better re-offender as adults. The EHRC has raised considerable apprehensions about the well-being of children in youth detention, highlighting a deterioration in custodial conditions and through the use of isolation, including pain-inducing imprisonment (Tyner 2016). For all of these reasons mentioned above, it is vital to reconsider the age of criminal responsibility in the UK. However, the government stated that it has no plans yet to increase the age of criminal responsibility.

Responsibility

Burke, R.H., 2017. An introduction to criminological theory. Routledge.

Herring, J., 2016. The age of criminal responsibility and the age of consent: Should they be any different. N. Ir. Legal Q., 67, p.343.

The Children and Young Persons Act 1963

Tyner, J.A., 2016. Violence in capitalism: Devaluing life in an age of responsibility. U of Nebraska Press.