Mr McCrea spoke out following the Justice Committee Chairman Paul Givan’s reaction to the Ministerial Statement on the Review of Youth Justice which was given to the Assembly today by the Justice Minister.
Mr McCrea, who is also the Ulster Unionist Party’s Justice Spokesman said;
“In the Assembly today the Chairman of the Justice Committee – the DUP’s Paul Givan – once again showed his inexperience and failed to properly consider the issues which were raised, resulting in a predictable knee-jerk reaction.
It is far too early to reach conclusions regarding the raising of the age of criminal responsibility to 12 without first studying the report and subjecting it to proper analysis.
What is undeniable is that we as an Assembly and as a society must take real steps to reduce child criminality. All the evidence suggests that it is important to try to keep young people away from the criminal justice system for as long as possible. Criminalisation and stigmatisation of children does little to address offending behaviour and bring about desistence from crime.
It is also important to speed up decision making so that children and young people understand that any sentence imposed is a direct consequence of their actions.
This is not about going soft on youth crime but it is about trying to intervene early to ensure that young people who are in danger of going down a wrong path early in their lives, can be turned back. This will have the twin benefits of saving that individual from a life of crime and punishment, and also saving society in terms of the cost of crime and the cost of imprisonment. This is considerable given that the Northern Ireland Prison Service states that it currently costs £78,000 a year to house a prisoner.
It is not for the criminal justice system to make up for a failure of parenting. These young people have not suddenly appeared as if from no-where. They come from homes in which their parents have all too often failed to instill in them a basic respect for their neighbours and the society.
This is too complex a problem to be reduced to knee-jerk reactions.“