The age of criminal responsibility in the region is currently 10 – the same as in England and Wales. It is 12 in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.
Alliance and the DUP have set out opposing positions on the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Northern Ireland ahead of a debate in the Assembly on raising it.
The age of criminal responsibility in the region is currently 10 – the same as in England and Wales. It is 12 in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.
The issue will be discussed in the Assembly this week as part of the consideration stage of the proposed new Justice Bill.
Alliance MLA Sian Mulholland has proposed an amendment to the Bill to raise the minimum age to 14, with exceptions for the most serious offences of murder, manslaughter and rape.
The proposal has been backed by Sinn Féin and the SDLP but opposed by the DUP, UUP leader Jon Burrows and the TUV.
The Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People Chris Quinn has called for the minimum age to rise to 16.
Justice Committee chairman and DUP MLA Paul Frew said there is consideration of the use of a petition of concern, a cross-community veto mechanism at Stormont, to block the bid.
He argued it is appropriate for “something so fundamental as law and order”.
Appearing on BBC Northern Ireland’s Sunday Politics show, Mr Frew said the status quo should be maintained.
“Victims must come first and they must be heard, it’s going to be very hard if a young person can’t commit a crime, how then do you have a victim, and how do you support that victim,” he said.
“But also the young person committing the crime needs to be supported, and there also has to be a proportionate and appropriate response with regards the criminal justice system, so the police and the courts should be armed with as many tools as they possibly can in order to bring people to justice and make sure that victims receive justice.”
He said the criminal justice system requires reform to make sure it becomes more sensitive to young people, but he argued that can be done within the Youth Justice Agency.
Ms Mulholland, meanwhile, said research backs raising the age of criminal responsibility.
“This is something that has been talked about for quite some time,” she said.
“The raising of the age of criminal responsibility was first recommended in a review of the youth justice system 15 years ago, so this has been a long time coming.
“There are over 70 organisations who have been working on this very thing for nearly 20 years.
“Northern Ireland is an outlier across the world, we have one of the lowest ages of minimum criminal responsibility, and we are the lowest in the Europe.
“What I am saying is not to diminish victims, in fact victims are at the heart, we want to create fewer victims, and when we look at what we now know after decades of research about child brain development, and what actually interrupts offending behaviour cycles is that early criminalisation and bringing a young person into the criminal justice system at an early age does not work.”
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