Lady Hale is absolutely right to say that the prosecution of children under 14 is wrong and to ask the government to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, as is the case in most European countries (Top judges join call for England and Wales to raise age of criminal responsibility to 14, 23 December).
The claim of the unnamed Ministry of Justice spokesperson you quote, that setting the age of criminal responsibility at 10 enables early intervention to prevent reoffending, flies in the face of the facts on reoffending rates and the mountain of empirical research that demonstrates the opposite.
An extreme example of this is the 1994 killing of five-year-old Silje Redergård in Norway by two six-year-old boys that is frequently compared with the 1993 James Bulger case in the UK. The Norwegian children were dealt with using a welfare approach, their identities protected, the public response muted and the children totally rehabilitated.
All of which is in sharp contrast to the media response, public outcry and outcomes for the killers of James Bulger. While this is an extreme example, the vast majority of empirical research reaches the same conclusion.
It will be to the Labour government’s enduring shame if it does not do what Lady Hale, among many others, is proposing.
Prof Roger Evans
Emeritus professor of socio-legal studies, Liverpool John Moores University
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