It is said that there can be no truer revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children. The Bar Council of England and Wales has just concluded an expert review of the minimum age of criminal responsibility. At 10, it is the lowest in Europe. We recommend that it is raised to 14.

Society should have moved on since the 1800s, when Charles Dickens railed against the storm cloud of unfairness that gathered over children. However, Dickens’s anger at the law and society, and the harsh treatment of children, remains familiar today. England and Wales are outliers in bringing the criminal justice system to bear on young children who cause harm.

Under the criminal law, a child aged 10 can be detained by the police following arrest, and they will experience the same process and environment as an adult suspect. Children are subjected to the same initial police detention periods as adults. In the year to March 2024, 45% of children arrested were detained overnight, and research shows that on average they are detained for about 11 and a half hours.

Moreover, children find it difficult to engage with the significant cognitive demands of the criminal justice system and this is linked to increased suggestibility, acquiescence and compliance in interviews. Whatever adjustments are made to criminal procedures, children routinely struggle to participate and this challenges the fairness of their convictions.

Take Dylan (not his real name), a man now in his 30s, as he made a bid for his liberty earlier this year. This was after his sixth recall to prison for........

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