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Do you remember being 11 years old and knowing that kicking the dog or harming animals in general is wrong?

You do?

Then I'm already half way to backing up my yes too, should the children killed a seven-year-old "Mortal Kombat-style" be tried as adults?

There are always those that say arcade games and console games are a bad influence on our children. There may be an underlying problem with young children playing "beat-em ups" and "first person shooters" but is it any different to the violence seen on TV?

That is not to say that a child who is younger than 8-years old should be tried as an adult, far from it. But they should at that age have indefinite psychiatric help.

The problem is a child's understanding that he or she is doing harm, which at the age of 8 and above they well and truly understand.

A child who kills someone accidentally even though they where playing a game should still be charged with manslaughter as an adult. Then given rehabilitation at a mental health unit. Where they can better gain an understanding of what they have done wrong. They should definitely not get any Playstations or an Xbox to use, and they should be strictly monitored as to what they watch on TV while in the care of the hospital.

I will highlight a crime in Liverpool, United Kingdom where two young boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of murdering a boy who was a toddler in 1993. They tortured the toddler, murdered him then tried to disfigure the body, and dumped him on a rail track. They where then tried as adults in a UK Court, but got lenient sentences for the crime that they commited. This was much to the dismay of the British public and the parents of Jamie Bulger in particular.

They were given a lot of "special " in a care facility, it was speculated that they had the use of computers, games consoles, special education, pool tables and whole variety of things that a lot of young people do not get when they have been well behaved.

At the time there was a lot of media attention to the case, and people in Liverpool where severely angered and emotional about the killing. The boys had been described as evil and that they knew what they had done.

They where given anonymity on there release for fear of reprisals from families in Liverpool and around the country. The case still shocks today and is still very deep in the minds of people in Liverpool.

Without a doubt children should be tried as adults when they reach the age of understanding, which should be around the age of 8-years old, at the latest 10 years old. Children do know right from wrong and for too long children have been given opportunity after opportunity to behave. So a few examples should be made to at least try and stop more child crime being committed.

If the fact that children being tried as adults stops them from committing crime, then the Law will have done its job. Street corners will be safer to walk by, you can rest assured your kids are safe with other children and so on.

My view is the same for any form of crime that a child commits, whether it is car crime, shop lifting, actual bodily harm or murder. Yes they should be tried as adults.

Learn more about this author, Gary Yates.
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