Member

Herein lies the rub. While great strides have been made in brain imaging and longitudinal cohort studies of development since the 1998 Act, science is unable to grant us an absolute answer as to when criminal intentions can be formed. It can, however, certainly offer compelling evidence that the bulk of brain development required for planning, decision-making and moral judgement in most people is incomplete at 10 and slightly less incomplete at 14. We appear to have drawn the line at the point where the vast majority will be underdeveloped, in the aim of widening the net so wide as to capture the one or two precocious criminal masterminds, at the cost of unnecessarily criminalising the many who are unaware of the consequences of their actions, who will cruelly face punishment without even understanding why.