Protections for children before the law: An empirical analysis of the age of criminal responsibility, the abolition of doli incapax and the merits of a developmental immaturity defence in England and Wales

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Fitz-Gibbon
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
The Law

scholarly journals Exploring childhood, criminal responsibility and the evolving capacities of the child: the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-282
Author(s):  
Raymond Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
The Law

Currently in England and Wales the law considers that all children below 10 years of age are exempt from criminal liability for their actions as such children are morally not responsible and lacking blameworthiness. This approach to young people in conflict with the law misrepresents the evidence regarding young people who offend and encourages highly contestable judgements about individuality, identity and welfare. I will argue that children have a right to respect for their evolving capacities and that respecting this right would help to redirect the criminal justice system towards a normative framework better equipped to accommodate the realities of childhood and in which the child’s experience of vulnerability and powerlessness is embedded throughout.

scholarly journals Offenses of Sex or Violence? Consent, Fraud, and HIV Transmission

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Cowan
Keyword(s):  
Birth Control ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Sexual Transmission ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
The Law ◽  
Sexual Transmission Of Hiv

Given the current criminalization trend, the motivating question of this article is whether or not sexual transmission of HIV, without specific consent to the risk of such transmission, should be categorized as an assault or a sexual assault, and what difference that (re)categorization might make. In the argument that follows, the criminalization discourses in Canada and England and Wales that underpin and permeate the debates over HIV transmission will be explored. These jurisdictions have been chosen as examples of two regimes, at almost opposite ends of the criminalization spectrum, in which recent changes have set new benchmarks for criminal responsibility. One (England and Wales) has set rather narrow limits on the criminal law, whilst the other (Canada) has set far broader parameters, and lately has begun to include other sorts of cases (such as deception about the absence of birth control) as analogous to the HIV cases, drawing the boundaries of the criminal law even more widely. Beginning with a brief description of the law in each jurisdiction, this article analyzes the gendered and (hetero)normative role of consent in HIV nondisclosure offenses. Through a comparison with the law on sadomasochism, the article questions whether such offenses are rightly categorized as assaults or as sexual assaults. Following a critical engagement with the reasoning in recent Canadian jurisprudence in the area, the article will conclude by addressing the question of how future HIV transmission cases should be tackled. It is argued that in the absence of a policy that precludes criminalization of nondisclosure, the position in England and Wales is to be preferred.

Unfitness to Plead in England and Wales

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudi Fortson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Learning Disability ◽  
Developmental Disorder ◽  
Criminal Offence ◽  
Legal Process ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Criminal Jurisdiction ◽  
Communication Impairment ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Commission

This chapter examines the legal and practical issues encountered by practitioners when dealing with unfitness to plead litigation. As the Law Commission for England and Wales has pointed out, defendants charged with a criminal offence may be unfit to plead or to stand trial for a variety of reasons, including difficulties resulting from mental illness, learning disability, developmental disorder, or communication impairment. Two issues are considered: (i) how might those defendants who are unfit be accurately identified; and (ii) what steps should be taken by legal practitioners and by the courts of criminal jurisdiction to cater for the interests of vulnerable defendants, victims, and society, and to maintain the integrity of the legal process as one that is fair and just? The chapter evaluates the reform proposals of the English Law Commission and assesses how the law could be improved for all those who are involved in dealing with the unfit to plead.

scholarly journals Rise in the use of section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in England and Wales: A viewpoint on Loughran (2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Cresswell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Causal Analysis ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Mental Health Act ◽  
The Law

This article provides a critical viewpoint on Loughran’s recent work in Medicine, Science and the Law on the causes of the rise in the police’s use of section 136 (s136) of the Mental Health Act 1983 (Loughran M. Detention under section 136: why is it increasing? Med Sci Law 2018; 58: 268–274). The rate of this rise seems significant: by 2014, it was five times more likely that a person in England would be detained in a hospital under s136 than it was in 2000, and the trend has continued to the present day. This viewpoint considers the significance of the s136 rise from the theoretical perspective of causal analysis.

scholarly journals Love in the time of Covid-19: a case-study of the complex laws governing weddings

Legal Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Rebecca Probert ◽  
Stephanie Pywell
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Marriage Law ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
General Law ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact

Abstract During 2020, weddings were profoundly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. During periods of lockdown few weddings could take place, and even afterwards restrictions on how they could be celebrated remained. To investigate the impact of such restrictions, we carried out a survey of those whose plans to marry in England and Wales had been affected by Covid-19. The 1,449 responses we received illustrated that the ease and speed with which couples had been able to marry, and sometimes whether they had been able to marry at all, had depended not merely on the national restrictions in place but on their chosen route into marriage. This highlights the complexity and antiquity of marriage law and reinforces the need for reform. The restrictions on weddings taking place also revealed the extent to which couples valued getting married as opposed to having a wedding. Understanding both the social and the legal dimension of weddings is important in informing recommendations as to how the law should be changed in the future, not merely to deal with similar crises but also to ensure that the general law is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century.

scholarly journals Diminished responsibility and alcohol

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuwan Galappathie ◽  
Krishma Jethwa
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Life Sentence ◽  
The Law ◽  
Diminished Responsibility

SummaryIn England and Wales diminished responsibility is a partial defence to the charge of murder. If successfully argued by the defence, it reduces the charge from murder to manslaughter and thus avoids the mandatory life sentence. Alcohol has been reported to be a feature in up to 80% of all homicides but for many years the judiciary have set an almost unattainable threshold for the disease of alcoholism to amount to a finding of diminished responsibility, in accordance with other aspects of criminal law. Reform of the law on murder is likely to take many years but it is timely to recap the current law on diminished responsibility and review advances in case law in England and Wales on alcohol.

Criminal Responsibility of the Insane

1894 ◽  
Vol 40 (171) ◽  
pp. 609-621
Author(s):  
Oscar Woods
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Law

Many of those now present will probably agree with me that the law of criminal responsibility, as at present laid prisoners is not the same in England, Ireland, and Scotland. The existing law is ruled by the answers of the judges to certain questions put to them by the House of Lords in reference to the case of the “Queen v. McNaghten,” tried in 1843.

scholarly journals El menor inmigrante como infractor penal

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Salvador Concepción
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Juvenile Offender ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Immigrant Children ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Penal Code ◽  
The Law

Resumen: La vigente Ley Orgánica 5/2000, de 12 de Enero reguladora de la Responsabilidad Penal de los Menores, en lo sucesivo la LORPM, se dictó para la determinación de la responsabilidad de las personas mayores de catorce años y menores de dieciocho por la comisión de hechos tipificados como delitos o faltas en el Código Penal o en las leyes penales especiales, lo que conlleva que actualmente una proporción importante de los menores imputados y procesados según esta Ley, sean menores inmigrantes que por distintos motivos se ven abocados a una actuación delictiva que les va a conllevar una responsabilidad penal. Es por lo que, en este trabajo vamos a estudiar los aspectos más importantes relacionados con esta delincuencia desde un enfoque pormenorizado hacia el menor infractor cuando éste es inmigrante, analizando la especial problemática de este fenómeno juvenil con el estudio de las cuestiones tanto de carácter social como de carácter jurídico que convergen en su tratamiento. Abstract: The Law 5/2000 of January 12 regulating the Criminal Responsibility of Juveniles – LORPM- was issued for determining the responsibility of persons aged fourteen and under eighteen for committing acts classified as offenses under the Penal Code or special penal laws, which currently carries a significant proportion of juveniles charged and prosecuted under this act, whether immigrant children who for various reasons are forced into a criminal act that they will lead to a criminal responsibility. It is the reason that in this work we are going to study the most important aspects related to this kind of crime with a detailed approach to the juvenile offender when he is an immigrant, analyzing the special problems of this phenomenon by studying social and legal issues that converge in their treatment

scholarly journals CRIMINAL DELINQUENCY – CYBERSTALKING: CHARACTERISTICS OF OBJECT AND OBJECTIVE SIDE

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (83) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Uldis Ķinis
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Legitimate Interest ◽  
International Regulations ◽  
Actus Reus ◽  
The Law ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Objective Side ◽  
First Time

On January 2018 significant amendments to the Criminal Law and the Law On the Procedure for Application of the Criminal Law came into force in Latvia. These changes not only in the first time introduce the criminal responsibility for the emotional violence, but also determine the procedure for assessing emotional disparity, equating the effects to telepathic injuries.In the article, the author reviews a modality of crime “persecution” - cyber-persecution. Although the legislator in the annotation of the law provides that the article also shall be applicable to acts committed in cyberspace, at the same time, the author indicates some problems that may arise due to the narrow interpretation of the law by the law enforcement. The purpose of the article is to study the object (protected legitimate interest) and the objective side (actus reus) of the offense - cyber-stalking. For purposes of research, several methods have been used. The method of comparative analysis, for examination and comparison of external and international regulations. Methods of legal interpretation used to disclose the differences between the understanding of the written text of the definition of the crime and what ought to be understood in the meaning of the norm. Finally, the author presents the conclusions and proposals on the application of the norm.

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