Name youths who commit serious crime, says Deputy
Thursday 3rd December 2009, 2:55PM GMT.
Deputy Trevor Pitman
YOUTHS who commit serious crimes should be named in the media as part of their punishment, according to Deputy Trevor Pitman.
The States are debating the Deputy’s proposition to give the courts the power to lift the order of anonymity imposed by the law for under-18s who commit serious offences.
Deputy Pitman wants the threshold lowered to 12. An amendment by Senator Ben Shenton would lower it to 16. If the States agree the move, the Youth Court would have the power to reverse the ban on naming youths convicted of murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery or serious assaults unless the youth had learning difficulties affecting their offending, or unless there was a risk of serious mental or physical harm to them.
Deputy Pitman, a former youth worker, told the States that young offenders had to be accountable for their actions.
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16 year olds have the vote, can leave school.
so whats the problem with naming offenders?
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If they don’t care about the people they hurt in the first place and aren’t put off by being sentenced in court…why is having their name in the paper going to scare them?
Surely people should have their own moral code or be frightened of the police – if these aren’t happening, THAT’S
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Anyone with all their faculties who is old enough to know better, (and I’d argue that would include anyone over the age of 10 or so), who chooses to commit murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery or serious assault, deserves to be named and shamed regardless of their age.
Irrespective of their age, they have knowingly made a choice and must live with the consequences.
We treat our children more and more like adults, giving them more and more freedom of choice, yet we seem reluctant to apply the consequences when that freedom of choice is abused. What sort of message is that sending?
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Theories of child development suggest that the brains of children and young people under the age of 14 are not developed enough to enable them to make rational informed decisions. ‘Naming and shaming’ children as young as 12 would mean that they are stigmatised and alienated from mainstream society which, research suggests, would increase the chances of them going on to commit further offences. The focus should be on addressing the causes of youth offending rather than pointless suggestions such as this that would only serve to make the problem much worse.
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I think the age should be dropped to 5!
If children are old enough to go to school then they are old enough to understand that they shouldn’t commit crimes.
I also think that all 12 year olds who are convicted of MURDER, MANSLAUGHTER, RAPE, ROBBERY or SERIOUS ASSAULT (is this for real?) should be sentenced to listening to Government debates for the rest of their lives!…or would that be considered torture?
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@ j #2
“…why is having their name in the paper going to scare them?…”
Maybe it won’t, but it would allow employers(and the public) know what kind of a person they were.
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