The BBC reports that East Midlands police forces have interviewed over 200 children aged 10 and under in relation to crimes ranging from burglary to sexual assault over the last 12 months.
In Derbyshire, 62 children were questioned about arson and robberies during 2008 and in Leicestershire, a child aged three was among 36 children questioned over incidents of criminal damage.
The BBC doesn’t give the total number for Nottinghamshire but reports that 11 children were questioned about violence against a person; the youngest being just four years old. Assuming the total figure of around 200 to be accurate – and subtracting the reported Derbyshire and Leicestershire figures – this suggests that these 11 teeny thugs might be amongst around 100 children under 10 formally questioned by the police in Nottinghamshire.
But the actual figures almost don’t matter. The point is that it seems more children are starting to show criminal tendencies or to get involved in real crime at a younger and younger age. And, according to criminologist James Treadwell, those that start at this early age very often go on to become persistent and serial offenders in later life. Even more problematic – especially for the police – is the fact that children aged 10 and under cannot be held legally responsible for their actions, so all the police can do is, in effect, give them a good telling off.
As usual in such scenarios, one has to question the parenting of these children. The Government has talked many times about ways to get errant parents to be more responsible for their children and, in the case of children under 10, this surely has to be a target for any future action. Parents of children this young cannot use the excuse sometimes put forward by parents of teenage criminal, that they are out of their control. Any parent of a four-year-old questioned over violence against the person, should have to answer some very searching questions about their abilities, their sense of responsibility and their own behaviour.
And these parents should also be given as much support as possible (in whatever form that needs to be offered) to prevent their children becoming the criminals of the future. These tiny tot tearaways must be a prime target for Nottingham’s much-vaunted early intervention strategy.
No charges against Sneinton ‘Eco protestors’
Well, well, well… 67 of the 114 protestors arrested at the Iona School in Sneinton in April are to face no charges. That’s no charges. Nothing.
Is this a sight we're going to have to get more used to seeing?
More than 200 police officers raided the school, smashed it up and arrested 114 people in circumstances that would have done justice to an operation to capture Osama bin Laden. The operation cost £700,000 at the time, a figure that has no doubt risen since then due to the costs of the ongoing investigation into the activities of the alleged environmental protesters arrested in the early hours of 13th April.
Asked by the BBC to explain the police action and why no charges are to be brought against the 67 protesters, a police spokesman said: “We feel this was going to be an unlawful action, they were arrested on conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass and that’s what we still believe was going to take place on that day.”
So the police believed that a crime was going to be committed; they felt that this would be an unlawful action.
As I said at the time, this raises a very disturbing spectre of the police engaging in ‘future-crime’ predictions based, it would seem, on flimsy evidence and unfounded suspicion. This is very worrying for anyone who values the right to legitimate protest, free speech and free association.
I hope they have apologised to the people they arrested. Now they should apologise to taxpayers for wasting their money.
Don’t hold your breath…
Update: 12th July – This operation was featured this week on the BBC’s Panorama programme under the title of ‘Whatever Happened to People Power’. It was described as the biggest pre-emptive police operation ever.