When Grounding isn’t Enough
Two
teenage boys in Barangay San Dionisio, Paranaque admitted to raping,
sodomizing, and killing a girl last February 20, 2012. They were said to have drowned
the girl in the creek because she wouldn’t stop crying; however, in the end,
the case against the boys was dismissed. Juvenile courts have said that
children under fourteen years old are unlikely to have criminal assumption,
according to the journal Juvenile Crimes.
But it seems different nowadays. It has been found that many juvenile courts
have now discarded this so-called infancy defense and have found that
delinquent acts can be committed by children of any age. Juvenile crime is the
offense committed by children under the age of eighteen. And we believe that as
child turns ten, they already have their own consciousness of what they are
doing. They are already aware of what they are doing, of whether it is bad or
good. However, with the growing number of youths committing felonies below
eighteen, is it enough just to put them under social workers’ care? Our stand
is that at the age of ten, children who commit crimes must be put to jail.
According
to Manila Times, the Republic Act No. 9344 or otherwise known as "Juvenile
Justice and Welfare Act of 2006” was authored by Senator Francis “Kiko”
Pangilinan. It is a law stating that all children in conflict with the law aged
15 and below and those above 15 but below 18 who acted without discernment are
exempted from criminal liability. This protects the children from being
arrested by authorities because they are too young to decide properly. Even
though children have done heinous crimes like murder and rape, they are not
sent to jail. The opposition believes that these children have a chance to
change by undergoing counselling and rehabilitation. This shows how optimistic
the government is concerning juvenile delinquency.
As
we have observed nowadays, the age of the minors involved in crimes is getting
younger. This is primarily because they know that they will not be put to jail
even when they act as drug couriers and crime agents. According to Atty. Tricia
Clare A. Oco of Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council, an average of 10, 515
children are arrested in the Philippines every year or an estimated 28 children
every single day, which means more than one child commits a crime every hour.
And if we are going to look at the list of the reported crimes in the country,
theft is number one on the list committed by these juveniles who are as young
as ten years old. As stated by Davao City Police Chief Senior Supt. Jaime
Morente, there have been 391 minors arrested by the police since January 2012
in Davao City. With this increasing number of crimes involving minors, we can
really conclude that juveniles today can commit any crime such as theft,
robbery, and worse, rape and murder.
The
juvenile delinquency law should be amended in our country because crimes
committed by minors have been increasing steadily. This is happening in our
society because minors know that they will not be put in jail which makes them
believe that they can do anything, even crimes, without being punished. In a
site named InfoHiway.com, there are news reports on crimes involving minors.
Some are being used by syndicates to do the dirty deeds for them like stealing,
theft, drug trafficking, etc. It also reports a 14-year old boy from Tondo,
Manila who stabbed his own teacher. Another was a 12-year old boy who raped a
3-year-old child. These records are enough. These are enough evidence and
reasons to revise the law.
According
to Corrections.com, there are several factors that can lead to juvenile
delinquency. One is family. If a family has a history of child abuse, fights,
or lacks problem-solving skills, then children have a greater possibility of becoming
wayward. Also, if the parents are already involved in criminal activities,
their children would probably follow in their footsteps. School is also a
factor that can lead to juvenile delinquency. Although school is the place to
learn and be shaped into able and proper individuals, it can also lead to the
opposite. Low academic performance, peer pressure, or early antisocial
behaviors can lead children to violent behaviors such as fist fights, stealing,
vandalizing, or even shooting. Social and economic factors such as poverty or
discrimination can also lead to juvenile delinquency. Children strive for
acceptance because they feel shunned by society, so they become juvenile
delinquents due to the false assumption that they can get the attention they have
always wanted. These are some of the factors cause juvenile delinquency. What is the effect? They place both the
welfare of adults and children at risk. Children become tools of crime because
of their immunity to imprisonment. It is time to set things straight. It is
time to discipline the juvenile delinquents and prevent them from being
exploited any further.
According
to an online poll on the House of Representatives’ website, seventy-five per
cent of the respondents are not in favor of lowering the age of criminal
responsibility. Meanwhile, the principal author of House Bill 6052 Cebu
Representative Pablo Garcia proposed to lower the age of criminal liability
from fifteen to twelve years old. Since some of the most influential countries
abroad have lower minimum age for criminal responsibility, this may have driven
some lawmakers to pursue House Bill 6052. However, due to this issue, human
rights’ groups rose to amend the law of juvenile delinquency in the country.
Aside from the fact that children need utmost and proper guidance from the
people around them, there seems to be a problem dealing with such due to
poverty or inappropriate upbringing, thus making them juvenile delinquents. But
because of the alarming number of children committing crimes due to societal or
personal issues, there is an emerging reason to lower criminal liability to ten
years old.
With all these cases and data
presented, we firmly believe that our stand has been solidified enough to
convince readers that these kids who commit crimes must be put to jail. They
have taken advantage of their rights as minors and exploited the essence of
becoming well-integrated individuals in the future. A ten year old child must
not be exempted from a crime he/she has consciously committed because at the
end of the day, a crime is still a crime.
Reference:
Figueroa,
C. (2012, June 14). Civil Society, International
community against changes to juvenile justice law. Vera Files.
http://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/50678/two-teenage-boys-who-raped-and-killed-a-7-year-old-girl-in-paraaque-are-set-to-go-free-police-cite-juvenile-justice-act-for-inevitable-case-dismissal
