Children the pawns of adult criminals

CHILDREN are being bribed, threatened and tortured into doing the bidding of adult criminals.

A Sunday Times investigation has revealed that a combination of adult influence and children’s vulnerability leads to youngsters being coopted into selling drugs, breaking into homes and prostituting themselves.

The Justice Department’s annual report shows that at least 1 071 children were used by adults to commit crime in the past year. But non-government organisations say the figure is much higher.

This week, experts confirmed that not much had changed since the findings of the Children Used by Adults to Commit Crime research report by the Children’s Rights Project, the Community Law Centre and the University of the Western Cape were released in 2006.

“Adults have a natural power because of their age and status, and children can be influenced unduly in many ways,” said Arina Smit of the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders.

A recent incident caught on video showed a woman seemingly instructing a child to steal a phone from a handbag in a Johannesburg restaurant.

In another example provided by Childline, a 13-year-old boy was arrested for “drug-running”. Childline national director Joan van Niekerk said the boy was told that, if caught, his punishment would not be “serious”.

Smit said children younger than 10 could not be prosecuted. For those between 10 and 14, there was a rebuttable presumption that they had criminal capacity. Those older than 14 had full criminal capacity and could be prosecuted.

Morgan Courtenay of the Centre for Child Law said the consequences for children caught committing crime varied — some are sent to juvenile detention facilities or prisons and others enter the state’s care system.

Justice spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said the department would investigate whether there was an increase in the number of children being used by adults to commit crime.