Education! Education! Education! In Crime?

My local rag has put out an interesting little story - over 1200 crimes have been committed by under-10's over the last 5 years. Such crimes as:

• A three-year-old who carried out a racial assault occasioning actual bodily harm in Salford
• A five-year-old who caused or incited another child, a girl, to engage in sexual activity in Bury
• A seven-year-old who caused arson with intent to endanger life in Wigan
• A nine-year-old raped another child in Manchester.

Lovely. I'm certain they'll grow up to be benefits sponging criminalsperfect citizens.

We all did some wrong stuff as kids - it's how we start to build up a moral compass, we do something, either realize it's wrong by ourselves or get punished in order to explain to us that we did wrong. The psycho's were easy to spot - they didn't 'get' that it was wrong. Ever.

There's plenty of things I did that I regret, and things I almost did - at around age 8 I recall chasing after a girl after discovering you could stick your fingers in girls bits. Do that at 18 you're a sexual predator, at 8 it seemed like an innocent game, and a few years later I realized just what I could've done and felt ashamed of myself.

These kids are doing it a lot younger though, and it's at a whole new level - around age 9 I discovered about sex, but would never have thought of raping someone. Sex yes, but only if she wanted it. As kids we burnt stuff, fascinated at the dancing flames - actual arson though? Hell, we childishly discussed burning our enemies, but it was just out youthful stupidity and anger, and would never have been actually done. It was all talk, now though?

And the law just gives them a wrist-slap. That'll be enough for some, but not all - the psycho's won't bother about that, but in addition there will be those who'll keep along the wrong path even though some harsher punishment would set them straight.

As ever, it won't be the socially conscious in their suburban havens that'll be at the sharp end of these feral kids as they grow into feral teenagers, no it'll be Joe and Jo Bloggs. More presents for the poor from Labour!