Children can be both victims and perpetrators of crime: discuss in relation to policy implications that arise here.

Previously children were perceived as idyllic and innocent creatures, with the possibility of them being the perpetrators of serious offences hardly a possibility. Unfortunately in recent years this perception has begun to change to stigma of youths as trouble makers. Often adults complain about the increase in Youth drinking and drug taking, and increased activity outside their family life, loitering on corners etc. Although the start of this transformation is difficult to pin down, Brown puts forward the notion that events like the Bulger Killing in 1993 contributed greatly to the loss of adults’ sense of belief of children as innocent. This comes mainly from the fact that the murder was committed by two ten year old boys, who had no motive or committed previous serious offences. To the vast majority of people the event came as a great shock, yet also enlightened many to the painful reality that anyone, of any age, could commit heinous crimes. Brown goes on to sum up her analysis by stating that,

‘The real violence of the Bulger case is arguably the violence it did to adult notions of childhood (Brown 1998: p.2).

Yet the fact lies that people still perceive children as more perpetrators of crime that recipients. This essay aims to first cover where this stigma arises in practice and what policies are in place to combat youth crime. It will then go on to outline in depth some areas where children are being victimised, specifically in the case of domestic violence, but also with regard to bullying and internet pornography. This will show that the current attitude towards children in fact contributes to an increasing amount of child abuse in this country, and that without rapid policy implementation severe damage could be done to this country’s youth.

When looking at youth offences it is important to take into account what types of crimes are being committed. Over 80 percent of youth crime is ‘property related’ i.e. handling stolen goods, stealing from shops, cars or schools and burglary. There is little violent crime committed by young people. Whereas the more serious offences like murder, rape, assaults and muggings are predominantly carried out by adults, children are actually the prime recipients of personal crime (Curtis, 1999: p.89). Although this may seem to go against the idea of youths as dangerous and adults as the recipients of their crimes, there is still the issue of what causes youths to commit the levels of property offences that are being seen, and how it could be stopped.

A lot of the blame goes on parents for youth crime. An unfriendly family atmosphere is said to drive some children to depression, and can lead to drug abuse or delinquency (Curtis, 1999: p.91). But additionally, treatment in education, generally the ‘I hate school’ attitude, but also bullying, can also lead to delinquency and truancy. In the case of drug abuse it is difficult to measure the effect on society because while there may be an increase in drug abuse among youths, drugs are still being almost exclusively supplied by adults to minors, which is where the real problems amount on that issue. Delinquency is also a contentious issue because when does it become a crime? In reality it is not delinquency itself which causes crime, but what it leads to. As Paul C. Friday puts it in Giller and Morris’ book Providing Criminal Justice for Children,

‘anti-social behaviour of youth is often viewed as a precursor to more serious acts. Consequently, much of the available research tends to operationally define delinquency as youth crime, but nonetheless, draw etiological generalizations from prior anti-social behaviour’ (Giller & Morris, 1983: Chap.3, p.40).

The question therefore arises; can government treat youths as offenders before they’ve committed crimes, on the pretence of stopping it from ever happening? That would be a policy issue which, while having clear benefits in reducing crime, would be treading a fine line between that and infringing on civil liberties and rights. Interestingly in the same book Ray Jones draws on some important conclusions to delinquency as the major ‘cause’ of youth crime. He notes that while delinquency is the major precursor of juvenile crimes it is difficult to react harshly to it because of three major reasons. Firstly, only 7 percent of delinquency related crime is violent, most amounting to only small thefts and minor damage to property. When considered in perspective with the levels of serious crimes being committed by adults it is hard to justify a hard line. Secondly, the majority of delinquent youths are ‘victims’ of our social structure, i.e. from deprived backgrounds. It would therefore be unfair to single them out, as some would call it ‘blaming the victim’. Thirdly, and most simply, it would likely lead to more delinquency (Giller & Morris, 1983: Chap.6, p.92). A significant implication here is that an effective policy for stopping delinquency, and subsequently a major source of youth crime, would simply be to improve standards of living.

Moving away from the concept that there’s always ‘a cause of a cause etc…, ’ many argue that because the majority of youth crimes are small scale petty crimes, committed against the community, a policy of Restorative Justice could be employed to stop re-offending. This type of justice system has had some success, especially in re-integrating offenders into the community, a view which Curtis makes evident, stating

‘The best programmes are community-based because it is in the community that the young people will live and practise what they have learnt (Curtis, 1999: p.193).’

However, recent legislative moves, like ...

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‘The best programmes are community-based because it is in the community that the young people will live and practise what they have learnt (Curtis, 1999: p.193).’

However, recent legislative moves, like the introduction of the Final warning, and the ‘two strikes and your out’ rule have worried advocates of Restorative Justice (Restorative Justice Consortium, RJ, criminal justice and young people, 2004). Nonetheless, the government regard the introduction of the final warning and two strikes rule as being their most influential change in policy, claiming it is the chief reason behind the 22.5% decrease in youth re-offending between 1997 to 2001 (BBC news, Youth crime falls dramatically, 2003).

So, while the forms of Juvenile offences are easily distinguishable, it is the roots of youths' actions which hold the key to effective policy implementation to combat their illegal, or anti-social, tendencies.

While juvenile offences seem uncomplicated, child victimisation is not so clear. Bullying can be a difficult area of child victimisation to combat. In many cases it is so ingrained in society that it has almost become tolerated as a norm. It is here where the line between children being offenders and victims cross. Research shows that 50% of children will be bullied while at school, and additionally 16 children kill themselves each year because they are being bullied at school (BullyOnline.org, How bullying injuries your Health, 2004). These are greatly disturbing statistics because they imply a huge proportion of the population are affected. New legislation has gone in place in 1999, in the shape of the Legal Framework for School Discipline, which brings about a new set of guidelines and expectations for teachers and head masters. But bullying can be difficult to stop because many children are afraid of further retribution and because of the stigma that ‘telling’ will have no discernable effect. Furthermore, the majority of cases of bullying happen during school breaks or out side school hours when children are not at home. Even the FA has reported that bullying and physical abuse has been happening on a large scale on its coaching courses, with 142 cases of abuse investigated in late 2002 – early 2003 (BBC news, FA investigates child abuse cases, 2002).

However, despite peoples’ largely optimistic outlook on domestic life, the most significantly dangerous facet of a child’s life is unfortunately their own family. For many young people, the family is a dangerous place (Muncie & McLaughlin 1996: Chap.5). Unfortunately domestic life is also the hardest area to monitor and administer justice. It is difficult to illustrate the extent of child abuse in the UK simply because of the nature in which it occurs i.e. behind closed doors, but like bullying, the detrimental affects can be huge. In fact, the same extent of physical abuse obtained domestically can be far worse for the child, as he/she has fewer people to turn to. Figures showed that in 1995, 32 in 10,000 child required protection from maltreatment (Department of Health, as cited in Pritchard and Kemshall 1999: p.171). This figure is by no means completely accurate, but does demonstrate the extent of the problem. Some data also show very high rates of suicide in children, with over 43% of children in inner city areas having considered suicide and one in six under 11 having attempted suicide, generally due to bullying, abuse, poverty, homelessness, and alcohol abuse (BullyOnline.org, School and Child bullying, 2004). Additionally the affects of domestic abuse are not only short term. Child Abuse is also likely to lead to long-term trauma for victims (Newburn 1993, cited in Williams 1999: p.45). Most cases of child abuse go unseen or unchecked, which means that they remain undisclosed for years to come, meaning once they come out this could lead to even greater distress on the individuals part, especially in the case of pornographic sexual abuse, which will be discussed later. Studies have also indicated how violence against children greatly increases the chance of the abused child showing signs of deviant behaviour in later life. As well a bullying, which leaves mainly children showing symptoms of depression and low esteem, direct observation of children’s behaviour at home reveals that abused children display a higher rate of deviant behaviour than non-abused children (Cerezo 1997, as cited in Klein 1998: p.29). Despite all the clear problems and figures that show just how bad child abuse at home as got, incidents are still being treated as special cases, and not actually considered to be crimes. This is especially apparently in sexual abuse cases.

‘It is assumed that children are unreliable witnesses; the burden of proof may be placed on ‘conflicting’ scientific evidence; or where the evidence is gathered from adults, ‘false memory syndrome’ may be invoked: for the criminal justice system ‘deals with evidence and views retraction as evidence of telling lies’ (Brown 1998: p.85).

What this means in practise is, it is extremely difficult to actually convict parents of sexual abuse. Brown’s statement that children are seen as unreliable could be put down to a few significant factors. The strong stigma that is occurring in the public plays a large role in this, where adults feel much happier labelling children as offenders rather than victims. There is also the belief that while children need guidance, and are generally considered unreliable, parents have rights, especially when concerning their children’s upbringing. This was exemplified in the Cleveland Child Abuse cases of 1987. In this circumstance the government came up with the policy of using a medical diagnostic technique known as ‘reflex and relaxation and dilation’ the illustrate cases of actual child abuse. This led to an increase from two confirmed cases of child sexual abuse in 1986, to 104 between March and July 1987 (Walklate 1989, as cited in Brown 1998: p.85). This culminated in 121 children being placed in care after the findings. This additionally led to an outcry amongst parents who felt they were being victimised, and after a campaign led by Stuart Bell the two doctors responsible for coming to the conclusions were vilified and 96 of the ‘abused’ children were sent home. However, an independent panel later concluded that the two doctors’ diagnosis were accurate in 70 percent of the 27 disputed cases (Community Care, Court throws out abuse case, 2001).

Children also have the problem of access to outside support. Most children are unsure who to trust and unaware of most support agencies. Additionally, organisations like the Victim Support agency require parental permission, which usually follows the assumption that parents are unlikely to be the perpetrators of offences against children. Only a few Help organisations, like Childline, allow anonymous telephone counselling, but most children are unaware of there existence or, just as importantly, how to contact them (Williams 1999: p.45)

Therefore, in addition to the general consensus of children commonly being seen as offenders rather than victims, and it being difficult for children to report abuse, there is also the belief that parents know what’s best. Subsequently it is complicated in judging where one begins infringing on parental rights, and it is broadly considered in the best interests of the family, and subsequently the child (rightly or wrongly) that parents are left to raise their children as they see fit.

These problems illustrate the difficulty in combating domestic child abuse when it arises, especially in relation to policy formulation, where it has to be considered how to not only identify cases of abuse, but also how they can be dealt with in a way which is universally accepted. As the Cleveland cases illustrated, juggling the rights of parents with the safety of child can be a difficult task.

In more severe cases child abuse can lead to death. Unlike the types of abuse mentioned above, when this occurs figures are much more easy to observe, and also very disturbing at the same time. Reports show that in Britain at least one to two children are killed by parents or relatives each week, with approximately 120 child death notifications received per year by the department of Health (Central Statistical Office 1994, as cited in Pritchard and Kemshall 1999: p.169). Statistics also show that children are more likely to be killed in their own home and by members of their own family (including step parents) than anywhere else or by anyone else, and that young infants and toddlers represent the age group most ‘at risk’ of homicide ( Creighton 1995, as cited in Pritchard and Kemshall 1999: p.170). However, the difficultly arises in the distinction between homicide and extreme child abuse. In many cases it is unclear whether extreme physical abuse was the cause of homicide, which could consequently be considered accidental homicide (nevertheless debatably). The problem that arises from this possibility is, that if homicide is generally the outcome of extreme physical abuse (and therefore not intentional), this points to the reality that the cases of physical child abuse in the UK could be on much larger scale than the figures above illustrate (32 in 10,000).

The difficultly in distinguishing the difference between accidental and non-accidental is also vital in coming to the correct conclusions regarding false accusations. Unfortunately there have numerous cases of mothers or nurses being falsely accused of the murders of infants. Amanda Cannings was falsely convicted of killing her children because of flawed evidence given by experts. Also recently in 2002, nurses Dawn Reed and Chris Lillie were finally, and completely, cleared of sexual allegations relating to no less than 27 children, and of supplying ‘paedophile sex session filming’, after a nine year ordeal of going in and out of hiding (Richardwebster.net, Shieldfield: how did it happen, 2002) Events like the Shieldfield libel case, the Amanda Canning affair and the Cleveland Child Abuse cases of 1987 illustrate the need for a clear policy outlining how child abuse and homicide should be treated. It also shows the difficulties in coming up with a universal policy on how to identify domestic violence against children and how more research needs to go into identifying abuse early on and where and when hard lines should be taken.

Child victimization is also evident in internet pornography taken for the usage by paedophiles world wide. This has been of huge contention internationally because no single country can effectively combat the problem or make individual policy without addressing the wider issue. Additionally, the increase in the amount of child pornography on the internet has been so rapid that most government agencies are unsure where to start. The NSPCC estimates that over 140,000 new images are put on the internet in any 6 week period, as well as the fact that individual children are being used to create huge amounts of material; again some 20 individuals were estimated to have been used in the creation of 35,000 images (NSPCC, The devastating impact of child pornography, 2003). But what truly illustrates this as an international issue, is the disturbing effects it is having on poorer countries, like those in Asia. With the increase in tourism, child pornography on the internet has led to astonishingly high estimated figures being released at a seminar on child abuse in Sri Lanka; with child prostitution and extortion levels as high as 500,000 in Thailand, 400,000 in India, 30,000 boy prostitutes Sri Lanka, a 100,000 in the Philippines and another 100,000 in Taiwan (UNESCO, Journalists perspective on Asian problem, 1999). In the EU and US legislation has been put forward to clamp down on people subscribing to paedophilia sites. In October 1998 President Clinton signed into law the Child Online Protection Act which criminalizes the commercial distribution of material on web sites which is considered harmful to minors. Additionally, in May 1998 the European Union Council of Ministers adopted a four-year action plan for promoting safe use of the Internet. This will provide funds for a European network of hot-lines and numerous projects on filtering, rating and demonstration products designed to reduce the dangers of the Internet, in particular for the protection of minors (UNESCO, Freedom of information…and pornography on the internet, 1998). Whereas this may combat the issue of stopping the buyers, stopping the treatment of minors in foreign countries will require a huge international effort, but evidence of British policy success in stopping child abuse for pornography is already becoming evident (Guardian.co.uk, Web Paedophilia ‘Clampdown’ saves 100 children, 2004).

In conclusion, this essay hopes to have illustrated that while youths are the main perpetrators of some specific incidences of offences, the social stigma as them being trouble makers is not entire fair. That juvenile offences go far deeper than mere trouble making, with some problems arises from more fundamental issues such as social deprivation and domestic abuse. It also aims to have shown a significant area of child victimization, and how this could be combated. While issues like indirect victims have not been documented; children witnessing wife beating, or even police officers compiling child pornography were not mentioned, as well as the idea of child as both perpetrators AND victims, with instances where parents have beaten their children for getting in trouble with police (Drakeford & Haines, 1998: p.20), it is clear that child abuse is a wide stretching problem which carries over into every facet of social life.

Bibliography

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