Trick or cheat? : Hong Kong public views on the age of criminal responsibility

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to review the public opinion towards the Age of Criminal responsibility (ACR) in Hong Kong by summarizing Hong Kong public views and stakeholders’ opinions over what should be the mechanism to deal with juvenile criminal responsibility and the rationale of their suggestions. Design/methodology/approach – The main findings are based on semi-structured interviews with 6 interviewees of various professional backgrounds and online questionnaires from 180 respondents in Hong Kong. Findings – The findings unveiled a spectrum of rationales about the adoption of the ACR in Hong Kong from the individual, social and institutional perspectives. Under the development of one’s criminal intent in the course of socialization, personal factors on top of the ACR, such as family background, education background and mental condition, should also be considered in order to make an individualized sentence to an offender. Meanwhile, rapid technological advancement has had a tremendous impact on children’s maturity in contemporary society, which challenged the existing ACR as well as the parenting methods on juvenile delinquency. The findings also suggest an institutional review on the ACR and the rebuttable presumption of doli incapax in Hong Kong in line with the fundamental principles of juvenile justice. Research limitations/implications – The sole adoption of the ACR to determine one’s criminal responsibility could be effective and efficient but there could be risk inside as well. A wide range of factors and circumstances could hardly be testified to determine one’s guilt in reality. It was also observed that the maturity and criminal intent of children and juveniles continued to evolve particularly in 2019 and 2020 when youth activism emerged along with the social movements in Hong Kong. Originality/value – The findings suggest that there is a foreseeable need for the authorities to review the existing ACR as well as the juvenile justice system in Hong Kong with a view to superseding any outdated legislations or practices.