Electronic tag fitted to 11-year-old
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Children's rights campaigners have condemned a court's decision to fit an 11-year-old boy with an electronic tag.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also given an 18-month youth rehabilitation order and handed a six-month curfew from 7pm to 7am after being convicted of assault, theft and criminal damage offences.
At a hearing at Leicester Youth Court he was also ordered to carry out 15 days of activities with the youth offending team and pay compensation to his victims. This includes paying £30 to another 11-year-old whose neck he held a knife to.
Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the charity was "extremely concerned" that tagging was being applied to an 11-year-old.
She said: "Children in trouble with the law are first and foremost children, and should be treated as such. Putting children on tag does nothing to address the causes of crime and will have no long-term impact on offending."
Instead the courts should be looking to address the root causes of offending, looking at the child’s welfare needs.
She added: "If there are children, barely out of primary school, regularly committing serious offences we should be concerned at their welfare and psychological needs.
"We should focus on developing innovative and effective ways of dealing with children and addressing their complex needs. The current punitive response to children does not work and can lock them into a lifetime of crime."
Kirsten Anderson, head of research, policy and communications at The Children's Legal Centre said the tagging of child offenders may breach international human rights standards.
"According to international human rights law, the government should ensure a response to juvenile offending that encourages rehabilitation, rather than one that is unduly punitive, particularly for young children.
"Electronic tagging can have the very negative effect of labelling or stigmatising children, by forcing to ‘stand out’ from their community and peers, which can make it all the more difficult for them to be rehabilitated and to reintegrate into their community following conviction," Anderson added.
