KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's top Family Court judge says offenders who are now too young to be charged with crimes must be made more accountable for their actions.
Judge Peter Boshier, who has been a judge since 1988, made the politically charged statement at a foster care conference in Hamilton yesterday, where he said he was shocked at what he saw happening in families now compared with what he saw 19 years ago.
But under current law children under 14 cannot be charged with crimes other than murder and manslaughter. Family Court judges can only place them under the care of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS).
"Twelve-year-olds, many of whom are committing quite heavy crimes, need to be more accountable than the present system is able to make them," he said.
"What concerns me about the present situation is that for every 12-year-old criminal there is a victim. It's the victim I am more concerned about.
"I believe we have to look for ways of making victims feel the system is more accountable and more potent. How exactly we do that is a matter for others but I definitely think the present system needs to be changed because it's too difficult at the moment to make child offenders accountable."
He later told the Herald he was not specifically supporting New Zealand First MP Ron Mark's private member's bill to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12, which is due to be debated in Parliament next month. Judge Boshier said shocking social problems such as methamphetamine abuse meant many child offenders now came from heavily dysfunctional families.
"It's not just that they are in need of care and protection because they are being neglected and abused. It's because they don't know the difference between right and wrong and have no remorse," he said.
"Unless we get this right, when they are 14 they are going to be in the Youth Court, and when they are 19 they are going to be murderers, and a lot of our murderers these days are young.
"I would have thought that as a country we'd be pretty worried if they are 12, because they have an awful long way to go."
The judge reaffirmed a law that the child's interests must be "paramount" in decisions on where to place a child in need of care and protection.
He said there was a danger that social workers now placed too much emphasis on placing children back in their families even when that might not be best for them.
"If we are going to place them back into a cyclical situation of family violence, we haven't got a chance," he said.
"You spend all this time reviewing plans and then the child goes back where it came from. The child is often being used by the family to commit crime because the family knows it can't be charged."
He said children should not be left "floundering in temporary care" while their families were given repeatedly extended deadlines to deal with drugs or other problems.
"Of course family involvement must be sought, but this has to come to an end when that family proves that they cannot care for the child or make the decisions that are required." Mr Mark said the judge's comments confirmed many of the positive comments he has received about his private member's bill.
"I have noted myself a strengthening of judgments handed out in recent months, and I put it down purely to the fact that my bill is now before the House."
