Age of the criminal or the criminal of age?

Jamie Love R. Salvador

Bachelor of Arts in International Studies

University of San Jose-Recoletos

With the rapid increase in crime rate, mankind will constantly seek justice. However, this justice may come in wrong and flawed forms.

On the 24th of September, Monday, Senator Tito Sotto filed a bill lowering the age for criminal liability. According to Paolo Romero, the lawmaker aims to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12 which is due to, according to Sotto, “the alarming rise in the number of crimes involving minors.” He filed Senate Bill 2026 seeking to amend Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, which exempts children aged 15 and below from criminal liability.

“This is a giant leap backward. Based on its explanatory note, the Bill argues that lowering the age of criminal responsibility will curb criminality and stop adults from using children. This is a flawed argument. Already disadvantaged children, exploited by adults should not be further penalized,” the UNICEF said. Exactly as it should be, UNICEF voices out a firm argument that contradicts Sotto. The children who are born into poverty are already at a disadvantage and are given no choice but to mimic and obey for their own survival.

John Lash states in his article a Vancouver Sum story reporting of the position of the Pakistan’s Interior Minister regarding the age of criminal responsibility. The Minister states that the children in Pakistan grow up faster than those elsewhere, therefore he actively helps in blocking the efforts of raising the age of criminal responsibility in Pakistan from 8 to 12. It is true that, with regard to psychology, we can never truly measure when a child is more developed than the rest of his/her peers. A child may be more developed in terms of thinking and may pursue more and more acts of undertaking.

However, it is not a strong argument. We cannot simply focus on an individual child. If we lower the age of criminal responsibility, it means it is more applicable for the children to be subjected to child pornography, child prostitution, child molestation, and human trafficking (Lash 2018).

Sotto has a point: There is an alarming rise in the number of crimes involving minors. There is an argument that can be made that there are children who develop their thinking quicker than other children. Yet we cannot say for sure that this is a reasonable and strong argument because we cannot single out one child in the large population of children.

UNICEF makes a strong argument that the children are already disadvantageous; why should we penalize them for being exploited and manipulated by the adults? We should firmly take a stand in saying no to the lowering the age of criminal responsibility and seek a stronger and better concerted effort in finding the real criminals that are of age.