On Lowering the Age of Criminal Responsibility

          Let us watch this documentary as we form opinions on the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility to 9 or 12 years old. This was produced before the enactment of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. That's why children here are incarcerated with adult offenders, a practice prohibited by the 2006 law.

          We need to solve criminality. Let us not be blind to the fact that children do commit crimes, both by their own volition or by the instigation/condonation/approval of adults. I understand the frustration of catching child offenders only to see them released to parents who will do nothing about their children/wards' offence. They mostly commit petty crimes only but they naturally progress from one crime to another. I know the feeling of losing crops like cacao and coconuts from our grounds. I hate it, especially when I know parents themselves might have actually sent the kids for the errands. But a lot of times they eat the fruits just outside our fence. They are hungry.

         

           We need a holistic and restorative approach -- one that sincerely coordinates efforts with schools, parents and churches and other institutions, just as the law itself provides.

         

           They are our future. Let us help them. Children should belong in caring families and communities.

          

          Salamat sa video link, Nerissa.

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." -- Prov. 22:6