Britain’s Child Felons

In Britain, hundreds of pre-teens are being charged with crimes including robbery, assaulting a police officer and even rape. The Nov. 12, 2006, Times cited 270 cases of 10-year-olds perpetrating major crimes from April 2005 to March of 2006. The Youth Justice Board also reported that nationwide, between 2004 and 2005, violent offences by 10-year-olds rose 33 percent. Worse yet, “Experts say the real number of sexual crimes committed by primary school children may be much higher ….”

Julia Davidson, expert on child crime at Westminster University, said that “a large proportion start offending from as young as 8 or 9.” In one case, an 11-year-old boy raped an 8-year-old girl.

Prepubescent violent crime should force us to ask some serious questions about our society. After all, what will a 10-year-old who has assaulted a police officer do when he’s behind the wheel of a car? Or when he’s old enough to buy alcohol or guns?

More importantly, what is the cause? A March 2006 United Nations report suggested social causes such as inconsistent parenting and school abandonment. The report admitted that the worse a child’s family situation was, the more likely he was to become a repeat offender. Indeed, many families from which children like these are emerging are in an unprecedentedly atrocious state. Those problems are exacerbated by the sickness in society at large, amplified by mass media increasingly infatuated with perversity.

Since the justice system has no way to deal with 10-year-old criminals effectively, and Britain’s family life shows no sign of improving, these juveniles will continue to roam the streets into their teens and 20s; other younger people will follow in their footsteps. Until drastic action is taken, the problem of children ruling over us will grow worse.

The situation uniquely fulfills an end-time prophecy penned by Isaiah: “As for my people, children are their oppressors …” (Isaiah 3:12).