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Criminal liability age may be lowered to 12
Criminal liability age may be lowered to 12
Alexis Romero (The Philippine Star) - June 8, 2016 - 12:00am
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte will ask Congress to lower the age of criminal responsibility following reports that criminal gangs are using children to peddle illegal drugs.
The measure lowering the minimum age for criminal responsibility is among the priorities of the incoming administration, Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, Duterte’s choice as the next House speaker, said yesterday.
Alvarez did not say, though, what the minimum age of responsibility in the proposed legislation will be.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said he is in favor of lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12.
“The bill will just bring back (the age of criminal responsibility) to 12. It used to be nine years old. And everybody was in favor of 12,” Belmonte said in a chance interview.
Belmonte said Sen. Francis Pangilinan raised the minimum age to 15 when the amendments to the Juvenile Justice System and Welfare Act were being tackled in 2013.
“Nobody seemed to notice. And later on, all of us were asking why did it become 15? Why not 12?” Belmonte said.
“I think I would go 100 percent to go back to 12, not nine,” he added.
The proposed bill seeks to amend Republic Act No. 10630, which amended the Juvenile Justice System and Welfare Act of 2006.
Under the law, a child 15 years old or below at the time of the commission of the crime shall be exempt from criminal liability. The offender, however, will undergo an intervention program designed by the government.
Critics said drug rings are taking advantage of the current law and are using children as couriers because they would only be sent to a reform facility if they get caught.
Compare natin with other advanced nation.
United States of America
The minimum age of criminal liability is set at the federal and state level in the United States. At the state level, 33 states set no minimum age of criminal responsibility, theoretically allowing a child to be sentenced to criminal penalties at any age [Cipriani,D. Children's Rights and the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility: A Global Perspective, Ashgate 2009, p. 221 and 222], though in most of these states a capacity related test is applied.
Of the States that do set a minimum age of criminal responsibility, North Carolina has the lowest at seven years, while Wisconsin has the highest at ten years. [For full references of state laws see Cipriani D., Children's rights and the minimum age of criminal responsibility: A global perspective, Ashgate 2009, p. 219 and 220]
Canada
No person can be convicted of an offence in respect of an act or omission committed while under under the age of 12. [Criminal Code, Section 13]
https://www.crin.org/en/home/ages/Americas
United Kingdom.
England and Wales.
Children can be held liable for criminal offences from the age of 10. [Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Section 50]
Northern Ireland.
No child under the age of 10 can be found guilty of a criminal offence. [Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, Article 3]
Scotland.
No child under the age of eight can be found guilty of any criminal offence, but no person under the age of 12 may be prosecuted for an offence and a person aged 12 or older may not be prosecuted for an offence committed while under the age of 12.[Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act, Sections 41 and 41A(1)-(2)]
The gap between the minimum age of prosecution and the minimum age of criminal liability means that criminal offences committed between the age of 8 and 12 may be included on a child's criminal record, though a prosecution may not take place. As of July 2013, the Scottish Government said it “[would] consider calls for the minimum age of criminal responsibility to increase”. [The Herald Scotland, “Dismay as reform fails to stop criminal records for children” 1 July 2013]
https://www.crin.org/en/home/ages/europe
