The age of criminal responsibility in the Caribbean varies wildly:
Antigua and Barbuda 8 years
Bahamas 10 years
Barbados 11 years
Belize 9 years
Cayman Islands. 10 years
Dominica 12 years
Grenada 7 years
Guyana 10 years
Haiti 13 years
Jamaica 12 years
Saint Kitts and Nevis. 8 years
Saint Lucia 12 years
Saint Vincent 8 years
Trinidad 7 years
Unsurprisingly one of the countries with the lowest ages of criminal responsibility for children of seven years is Grenada with the barbaric past of the Grenada Gulag. Surprisingly one of the most dysfunctional,Haiti, has the highest at thirteen years.
Modern criminal justice reform has long proposed a minimum age of twelve years although many countries have declined this modern advancement for a civilized society.
The United Kingdom has tenaciously hung on to a ten year minimum age although most experts have suggested twelve years.
This may explain why the impotent Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission recommended the age of twelve before going no further with the modern world. They may as well lock up shop and go home when any recommendation is in conflict with the mother country.
This position likely holds with all the British possessions in the Caribbean in this and the approved but not legalized marijuana initiative.
Perhaps the failure is that law reform bodies of the Caribbean should not only include prosecutors but criminal defence attorneys daily exposed to this unfortunate phenomenon with an insight of experience and truth as confessors. The other is that their functions are often subsumed by government.
These developments or lack thereof mirror the disturbing trend of serious crimes by children in the Caribbean. Jamaica has seen twelve year olds charged with murder and the Cayman Islands had a twelve year old on a gun charge that carried a minimum seven year sentence. He was found not guilty.
The outside world has also had to face a similar burden as the powers that be grapple with the age old question of crime causes, specifically to turn away at risk youth. There is no shortage of funding.
The new Cayman Islands government after the first 100 days with a nearly billion dollar budget remains silent on a realistic plan for at risk youth as the country spirals into more violence after the stadium mass shooting in 2024. The CI$ 250,000 reward remains unclaimed.There may be a better use for those funds.
Another prison or another way.
The truth may be found in the book of Matthew: Suffer Little Children.
Notes
https://archive.crin.org/en/home/ages/Americas.html
https://www.gov.ky/content/published/api/v1.1/assets/CONTF547EA7619F94384BF82286B7296D94F/native?cb=_cache_3e58&channelToken=f8ce8e2ec2e34ed991c0944bb63659fc
https://legislation.gov.ky/cms/images/LEGISLATION/PRINCIPAL/1975/1975-0012/1975-0012_2024%20Revision.pdf
https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20240614/twelve-year-old-boy-charged-murder
https://www.caymancompass.com/2018/08/26/12-year-old-boy-found-not-guilty-of-firearms-charge/
https://www.ieyenews.com/cayman-stadium-shooting-some-questions/
Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decade. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88.
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