Offences committed by children under 10 years of age (FOI)

Request

Please can you tell me:

A

The number of offences carried out by children under the age of ten that the States police have dealt with since 2016. Could you please breakdown the number of offences for each year.

B

For each year please could you breakdown the offences by type and the age of the child who committed the offence.

C

How does the States police deal with children who are under the age of ten who cannot be arrested for a crime?

Response

Article 2 of the Criminal Justice (Young Offenders)(Jersey) Law 2014 states:

Article 2: Age of criminal responsibility

It shall be conclusively presumed that no person under the age of 10 years can be guilty of an offence.

A

Due to the small number of offences recorded in the time frame requested, the results will be combined to protect the identities of those involved. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

Since 2016, there have been six cases where a child under the age of criminal responsibility has been brought to the attention of the States of Jersey Police.

B

Offences included three counts of causing damage, two of which involved a break and entry, one incident of theft, one incident involving the possession of an offensive weapon, one incident of common assault on another child. Ages of those involved range from seven to nine years.

C

Arrests can be made but no prosecution can follow.

The Detective Inspector in charge of the Public Protection Unit states: The States of Jersey Police work closely with key stakeholders to safeguard children. These include the Safeguarding Partnership Board, the Children Services and the Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) to name but a few. If a child commits a crime but is below the age of criminal responsibility the agencies will look at the bigger picture in an attempt to prevent any future activity and try to get to the root cause of the activity. Professionals have the ability to submit a safeguarding alert to the MASH who will then decide on the best course of action i.e. single agency or joint agency approach.

Clearly a preventative strategy rather than a prosecution route is deemed more appropriate.

Exemptions applied

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.