It takes a village to raise a child.
For a child to grow and prosper in a healthy environment, they need the support of more than their parents or immediate families alone. While this proverb is widely used and accepted across cultures, too often, we see children falling through the cracks caused by society and circumstance.
The environment that a child grows up in is inevitably going to have a significant impact on their thoughts, ideals and actions. Once the system fails a child, or a child chooses a path that negates societal norms, we cannot sideline them as ‘juvenile delinquents’ and give up on the hope of recalibrating their lives through persistent care as the situation calls for.
It is the responsibility of the society at large, and especially the State, to protect the rights of ALL children and to provide them a fair chance at a prosperous life in a safe and healthy environment.
Invisible children
Acts of delinquency in children are generally noticed in vulnerable children who face hardships in their life, such as difficult socio-economic conditions, coming from families with divorced parents, loss of a parent, parental abuse of drugs, other forms of abuse and neglect.
Institutionalizing them for their delinquent behaviour may be the easy path to take, hiding them away from the public eye, forgotten by the general public. Global studies, however, indicate that this is not the ideal course of action as it often leads to reoffending rather than rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
Institutionalized children are at risk of further violence and abuse which would just contribute to the traumas they have faced earlier in life.
Institutionalizing them with older children and adults would expose them to more serious criminal activity, leading to impressionable adolescents further descending into more and more serious criminal activity.
Criminal Age of Responsibility
The government has announced in March 2024 that they have decided to revoke the legal stipulation that minors under 15 cannot be held responsible for criminal acts, and to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12.
As per the Juvenile Justice Act passed in 2019, children must take responsibility for criminal acts beyond the age of 15. Prior to the ratification of this Act, the law was that beyond the age of 10, children must be held responsible for crimes that carry a 'Hadd' penalty in Islamic Shariah, and that they must bear responsibility for all other crimes as well beyond the age of 13.
Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ali Ihusan announced that they intended to revise the laws so that the minimum age of criminal responsibility is defined as 12 years.
Interventions over incarceration
The announcement was met with mixed reactions. Some were of the view that society will be improved through removing juvenile delinquents from it and locking them away, while many others argued that this would be an injustice to the child, and is a bandaid solution rather than addressing the underlying issues.
Vocal critics of lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility included former Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed and then Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem.
Hameed argued that instead of lowering the age of criminal responsibility, the focus should be on establishing 'an integrated, cross-governmental approach to tackle juvenile delinquency' with swifter and more effective interventions.
"Just as we need patience to raise our children, we need patience to correct them."
Shameem, meanwhile, pointed out that children fall into a life of crime because the environment they live in facilitates such behaviour, and elaborated that changing their environment would be the optimal solution.
"Law enforcement agencies have the power to do it. However, changing the environment and children's behaviour is not like pressing a switch. The result would not be instantaneous. It will take patience and persistence. State resources should also be spent on it, to change the child and the environment around them simultaneously," Shameem wrote in a blogpost addressing the issue.
The blog post also highlighted that over 70 percent of the currently incarcerated population is imprisoned for drug-related crimes, calling out how the drugs issue in the country has not seen a noticeable resolution through incarceration alone.
"This is not a small task. Just as we need patience to raise our children, we need patience to correct them. We don't let our children go when they do things that we don’t agree with. Would you not work with those kids patiently and persistently to guide them to the right path? These are also kids just like that."
Finding a balance between crime prevention and safeguarding children’s rights
While there is a growing trend internationally of incarcerating children at increasingly younger ages for long periods of time, studies indicate that this is far from effective in preventing juvenile crime.
Incarcerating children present them to risks of further violence, sexual assault, inhuman or degrading treatments and punishment. It also exposes them to negative influences, all of which has a toll on their mental and physical development.
Having said this, the State’s objectives in formulating these policies are also clear. With a rise in juvenile offences, it is no longer an issue that can be ignored. Safety of society and crime prevention is at the core of decisions such as this, but it is important to reflect on global experiences showing that criminalization and incarceration are less than effective measures to combat this.
The focus of a juvenile justice system must be towards rehabilitation and reintegration.
The UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty highlights that incarceration of child offenders is generally counterproductive and cost-inefficient. They recommend that non-custodial solutions be explored, and to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least the age of 14 years. They urge for making restorative justice mechanisms widely available and to strengthen child protection systems with sufficient resources and capacities.
Even in the case of children who are deprived of liberty, the study calls to ensure the children are allowed to maintain regular contact with family, provided with quality healthcare, education and training, and to introduce early release and post-release programmes such as mentoring and community service work.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has consistently called on countries to adopt a minimum age of criminal responsibility of 14 years or older.
Too young for a driving license, Old enough to bear criminal responsibility
“What we need now is a concrete commitment to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years and for governments to provide these children with the care, support and treatment they need to preserve their dignity and human rights. What we don’t need is more vulnerable children going to gaol for behaviours that are a direct consequence of their young age, earlier trauma, or complex developmental disabilities,” Dr Mick Creati, Paediatrician and Adolescent Health Specialist wrote in an open letter to the Australian government.
Children build their capacity for abstract reasoning through their adolescent years. ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ are simple concepts for them to understand, but scientifically, it has been shown that children’s cognitive and psychological development mature by the age of 16.
Prior to this age, they are biologically not able to easily grasp the gravity of their actions and the impact it would have on society, making them unable to possess criminal intent. They are also easily impressionable at this age, and susceptible to influence from those around them, which in cases of juvenile offenders are more often than not older criminal elements.
Global studies indicate that children arrested before the age of 14 are three times more likely to reoffend. Forcing young offenders into the criminal justice system instead of presenting them with opportunities to rehabilitate and become constructive members of society only go on to encourage recidivism and presents them to ostracization and discrimination in the larger society. It takes away the opportunities for education and employment. It takes away their chances of reform and leading healthy, positive lives in adulthood.
Will Society shake their heads at the idea of a child below the age of 18 being behind the wheel of a car, or getting married, or even being formally employed, but then turn our backs as children of these same ages are booked into the criminal justice system and led away to cells?
Criminal conduct, even if it be from children, undoubtedly create fear amongst society. But locking them away is not the answer.
A rational approach, where we do not expect children as young as this to take culpability, but rather assist them in leaving behind their ill actions and rejoining society as functional youngsters is the, perhaps rocky, but right road we must take.