At what age do children know right from wrong?
Scotland's Commissioner for Children tells us on the programme today that the criminal age of responsibillity in Scotland - at eight - is shameful and she wants it increased as soon as possible.
At the moment it's the lowest in Europe. In the rest of the UK, it's ten, still well below other European countries like France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Scottish ministers are thinking about increasing it to twelve. But there are no plans for change in the rest of Britain.
Our reporter Bob Walker went to meet 5 live listener Guy Eames and three of his five sons, Morgan, six, Oliver, seven, and Jake, 13, to ask them at what age they knew right from wrong. Click to listen:
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I think that there are some children that are very aware of what they are doing when they commit crimes at a young age, but to tarnish them for life is probably wrong. Some of these children will just be "bad" and will follow that path for all of their life. The majorityof these miscreant children, however, are probably victims of bad parenting and the enviroment in which they are raised.
We need to look at ways of identifying those children that are "bad" and those children that are badly brought up. The parents of the badly brought up should feel the full force of the law and be proscecuted for the crimes of their children. These children should also be removed from bad parents where possible and placed in an enviroment where they will be given a chance to become decent members of the community at large.
As for the "bad" children, they will probably be beyond our reach for all time. They will just have to be dealt with by the criminal justice system, like any other offender. Any other solutions would be completely unacceptable in a civilised society.
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Victoria:
i think by the age of 10 they should know from right (from) wrong....
[earlier, i preferred by age of 8]
~Dennis Junior~
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There's no set age children can tell right from wrong!
Depends on their individual mindset, the degree they've been mollycoddled by parents or indoctrinated by conventional wisdom's etc.
The earlier kids start thinking independently and hopefully with the help of a state school eductaion system start questioning a lot of what they are supposed to believe in mainly from the mainstream media, then the more likely they are to keep out of crime which the majority of kids do anyway!
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The real problem wih the present generation of children is the parents
In the welfare state where teenage girls are actively encouraged to become single Mums to gain council accomodation and welfare (total) support and children by their thousands across the nation are nothing less than ferrel how can we possibly judge when they have arrived at an age of "right" or "wrong" judgement
Emphasis in punishment must be placed back on parents when children go wrong
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