Lowering the age limit of criminal liability to 13

Why is it a necessity?

Good Morning everyone. In this speech, I will show you the necessities of
lowering the age limit of criminal liability to 13 and how this will affect our nation greatly.

My first point as why we should be allowed to arrest 13-year-olds is because of

the need for these kids to have proper understanding, ethics and knowledge once they
grow older. A lot of the time, sadly, children and minors who commit crimes are in
environments and situations that do not prioritize ethical and moral values when doing
actions. Places like informal areas and poor places usually enforce onto a child the
mindset of the survival of the fittest. Those who can stay longer in the world, will
probably stay longer in the world. In order for this to become true, one must need
sufficient amounts of money in order to buy necessities and things for their beloved
ones, even if it means doing crimes. Following the logic that it is easier to commit
crimes like theft and extortion in order to obtain money rather than earning it through
hard work, anyone, not just children, would choose the easier and more convenient
choice. The number of kids who actually earn their money can only be counted by the
fingers. If the minimum age for a child to be arrested were to be 13, crimes ranging
from petty theft to absolute murder will be reduced significantly. The minors who would
get detained will only be thrown away or rather, put in CICL (Children In Conflict with the
Law) Centers or anyplace similar to it. These places usually teach these kids discipline
and all kinds of moral values one simply must have. These values will help them to
move up in the world as better people who help the society and even the economy, as
crime rates would go down because of this.

Another reason that I would like to give as to why this crooked mindset exists is
because of the internal relationships that the child does not have or is probably broken.
Relationships between child and parents is one of the core elements in raising a
successful child, amidst the environments that are not conducive for learning, growing
and developing. Kids need the support of the parents and not just any kind of monetary
support. We are talking about the morality and the ethics of child. The parents have a
responsibility to hold, and if they don’t, kids will be forced to learn the ways of the world
the hard way, through the influence of the environment, such as the adults and of
course, the peers. Worse, if the parents are the bad influences, which double the
chances of the child being like the parents. These kids are lost. They think they know
what they are doing with their crimes and such. They think that it is right. That is how
poisonous the outside world is, and if we don’t stop children from these acts, we’ll bring
our own end. If we are allowed to jail them, we will take the responsibility of the parents,
filling in the broken gaps they’ve made. Rehabilitation centers and what not would be
the new homes of these kids. These centers would help the children emotionally by
boosting their self-esteem through various works, and make them feel like they are
worth something very valuable. Only then would the children learn new ways on how to
live life, because to solve these kinds of problems, one must first remove it from the root
cause of all these problems and redo their lives completely. A transformation, if you will.
 Another contributing reason as to why kids do crimes is that they are usually part
of criminal organizations or gangs. Gangs usually use kids that they’ve raised and
trained for a certain period of time and order them to do the crimes for them, such as
being mules, carrying illegal items, or stealing for the organizations. If they were to be
caught in the act, they wouldn’t get arrested since you cannot do that. Eventually, these
kids will learn how the ways of the system work and they would leave the organization,
working for themselves, or worse, make their own criminal organization, basically
multiplying the number of gangs here in the Philippines. Jailing them would be needed
in order to find and stop these gangs from operating and growing.

I do think that this law, if it were to be implemented, really is necessary for the
benefit of our country and of our future. Thank you.