Age of criminal responsibility should rise to 12, professor argues

A move to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland from eight to 12 has won the backing of a leading family law academic.

Writing in today's Herald, Professor Elaine Sutherland, Professor of Child & Family Law at the `University of Stirling and a member of the Law Society of Scotland's Family Law Committee, calls for support for an amendment lodged by Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes to the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill that would make that change.

Although the law has already been changed so that children under 12 cannot be prosecuted in a criminal court, they can still be referred to a children's hearing on the ground of having committed an offence. Professor Sutherland believes that alternative grounds of referral are available in such cases, and a hearing could order detention in secure accommodation in serious cases. She cites as an example the well known murder of two-year-old James Bulger by two 10-year-olds in the 1990s.

The present low age, and the minimum age of 10 in England & Wales, has been criticised by United Nations committees, both on human rights and on the rights of the child. The latter committee believes that no age of responsibility below 12 is acceptable.

Professor Sutherland argues that acts committed by a child below the age of 12 should not "follow them into adult life", as they would in certain circumstances when past convictions require to be disclosed.

The Scottish Government has announced it will oppose the amendment, on the ground that the bill is not the right place to address the issue, but Professor Sutherland maintains that there is "nothing to lose and everything to gain" by supporting it.