The Youth Justice System in Europe

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In my view the youth justice system should be dealt in a better way with few amendments. This will not imply that the young children mischievous acts won’t be dealt without any response. There are many various ways that can be dealt, like transfer of resources to children services, various forms of provisions and some special staff to deal with adolescents. The extensive and unfortunate scaling back of youth service over recent years has led to a loss of such expertise.

The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years .In other terms we can also say that children who are below the age of 10 years won’t be charged or for that matter arrested for a crime.

In Europe 14 or 15 is more usual, with some countries like Belgium and Luxemburg as high as 18. In Luxemburg the age is 18 years and the same is in Belgium for all but for most serious offences. In each of the four Scandinavian countries the age of criminal responsibility is 15 years and shared by Czech Republic and Estonia. I feel that a child is not cognitively developed when he is 10 years old. According to web source most of the teens get cognitively developed between the age of 13 to 17 years. In this period they attain maturity that is they start getting the ability to make decisions based on the knowledge they attain. At this age, they also start building relations with friends and family. I prefer that the age of responsibility should be increased from 10 years, at this age a child is still not mentally matured of the act he or she is doing. An article was also published in the newspaper ‘The Guardian’ dated 5.12.2012, with headline as ‘Age of criminal responsibility must be to protect children rights’.

It was said that the age of criminal ...

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...nce and the Law, London Royal Society

13. Rediich A & Goodman S 2002 ‘Taking responsibility for an act not committed: the influence of age and suggestibility in law and human behavior 27(2)

14. All Party Parliamentary Group for Children (2010)

15. Barnado’s (2010) from Playground to Prison: the case of reviving the age of criminal responsibility, Illford:

Barnado’s and Centre for Social Justice (2012)

16. All Party Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System (2012) keeping girls out of the penal system,

London: Howard League for Penal Reform

17. Sexual Offences Act, 2003, Section 74

18. R Allen, from Punishment to Problem – Solving; a new approach to children in trouble (Centre for Crime and Justice Studies: London 2006)

19. Crime and Disorder Act 1998: section 37

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