Stop making children criminals

Criminalising children causes persisting harm not only to the overall development of many children but also of human societies. It encourages a spiral downwards by children into further offending and increasingly violent offending which often extends into adulthood. It prevents societies moving on by upholding lingering beliefs in original sin and the need to beat the devil out of children. CRIN wants to encourage a debate on juvenile justice which gets beyond pragmatism and compromise. This paper seeks to provoke a constructive influential debate on juvenile justice, going beyond proposals to move the minimum age of criminal responsibility up or down by a year or two.