AT WHAT age should children be held criminally liable for their actions? It depends where they live. In England and Wales, children under 10 are not considered capable of committing a crime and cannot be tried, no matter what they might have done. In Scotland the age is 8, though it will soon to be raised to 12. Some US states consider 7-year-olds to be criminally responsible, others set a minimum age of 15. In Belgium, the cut-off point is 18.
The age of criminal responsibility is quite literally all over the place. So what are we to make of…
