The idea of children under the age of eight committing crime is disturbing. Yet Scottish police forces have recorded incidents of vandalism, theft, breach of the peace, assault and fireraising by children below the age of criminal responsibility, with even two-year-olds and three-year-olds being recorded for acts of vandalism. With only five forces able to supply data, the numbers of under-eights involved in behaviour that would be criminal if they were older is estimated at more than 200 in the past year.
Most of these children are reported to the Scottish Children's Reporter as in need of care and protection. However, one effect of the 2004 Anti-social Behaviour Act is that more pre-school children are being reported to the police by people who want harsher penalties for children causing problems. If two-year-olds and three-year-olds are reported for problem behaviour, the incident goes through the recording process, but for most people the culprits would be parents who allow children who are unable to look after themselves to cause damage to others. By any measure, these children are neglected and urgently require care and protection; the issue is how best to achieve it.
Parents struggling with the behaviour of young children need intensive support before they become out of control. With extra help from health visitors and good nursery places, the under-fives will be less likely to appear in police statistics and, according to the recent Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, that means they will be less likely to be convicted of crime as adults. It makes economic as well as social sense: a recent report by Audit Scotland suggested schools and health workers should be more involved to alleviate pressure on the Children's Hearings. Bill Whyte, professor of social work studies at Edinburgh University, is right to say that these children need help and that if they don't get it they are likely to need the sort of services which are very expensive. If they end up in care or in custody, they are also unlikely to bring up the next generation successfully. Concerted action is required to prevent that.
The age of criminal responsibility is eight in Scotland, low by international standards and two years lower than in England. A report from the Scottish Law Commission recommended raising the age to 12, but our Children's Hearings system, based on the welfare of the child, means that children under 16 are not prosecuted for any but the most serious offences.
We need to use that system to focus on the needs of the family and to ensure help provided to parents is effective, particularly that social work, education and health services work together with the police forces. If we must take action against pre-school problem children, it should also be directed towards the parents who are failing in their responsibility to their offspring. It is in the home that children must first learn right from wrong.
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