It’s strange to think that in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old, which means that children under 10 cannot be arrested or charged with a crime; however, once children reach the age of 10, they are criminally liable. This seems really low, and was recently raised to 12 in Scotland. However, in this debate the opposition argued that it should be lowered, not raised. Whilst this might open up the prospect of 6-year-olds being ripped from their mother’s clutches, and potentially imprisoned or institutionalized, the opposition argued that the most important factor in this debate is inculcating a sense of responsibility in all of us from a very early age, which is the only way to end the chaos of our crime-ridden world: they made things too hard for themselves; it proved to be a ‘difficult sell’. Next week we’ll be debating the colonization of Mars.

 

Mr Ahern & Mr Murphy