Child Crime
Children under the age of 14 can not be brought to justice for committing crimes. In this story the father of the boy has been charged with receiving stolen goods because he used vouchers that the boy allegedly stole. This boy of 13 has admitted 12 burglaries and stolen four vehicles in the past couple of months.
Parents who suffer a child that commits crimes should know that the child may be caught by police but may not be charged or held and must be returned to the parents. If the parents are party to the crime, the child's age is no protection. It would seem the right thing to do is to try and return stolen property to its rightful owner, but this should be done with the police.
One story we can relay in a similar case was where a parent took the underage thief to a police station and returned the stolen goods. In this way the child was given an example of responsible behaviour. The police said that returning goods in this way was "very unusual". The parent said that statement was discouraging. Do we as a society still believe that a criminal act is okay so long as you do not get caught? Or was returning it the right thing to do?
There is room for parents to be confused both by the application of the law, and the confusion that may result from not being able to accept that their children are breaking into houses or committing crimes.
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