The police in the United Kingdom (UK) shockingly received reports against hundreds of children. Horrifically, one was against a two-year-old kid accused of a sex offence and another against a six-year-old who was a suspect in a rape cae.
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Both these children were among 200 below 10 years of age who were accused of committing crimes, and had reports were filed against them in 2017, Cambridgeshire Police revealed.
A spike of 260 percent in the number of cases against children below 10 years of age has been observed in the figures released by the police force.
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A person is legally considered to be responsible for a crime in the UK only if he or she is above 10 years of age, but despite that more than 200 cases against those below that age have been reported.
Children under 10 can't be arrested or charged with crime in England and Wales, as stated by the UK Home Office. But there are certain punishments that such children be given. These include a local child curfew and a child safety order.
The children can also be taken into care at time and their parents can also be held responsible in some cases.
In 2013, the number of such cases reported to the Cambridgeshire Police was 53. The number soared to 77 in 2014 and it further rose to 141 in 2015.
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The statistics further increased to 190 in 2016 and grew to 205 in 2017, which was found to be an all-time high.
Out of the reported children, 14 were accused of carrying a knife, and two aged eight and six were accused of rape. A six-year-old was reported for making death threats and a child aged 10 was accused of sexual grooming, a report by Metro revealed.
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The police said a drop of 70 percent has been observed in the number of children arrested despite the rise in the number of reports.
"There can be a number of factors behind variations in crime statistics over a period of years. Some of these figures reflect our drive to improve consistency in crime recording so the public can have confidence in the figures and in reporting crimes to us in the first place," a Cambridgeshire police spokeswoman was quoted as saying by Metro.
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"We now record incidents as crimes when previously, for example they might have been recorded as anti-social behaviour or simply a suspicious incident. The force has carried out significant work to ensure that children are not wrongly criminalised and that a common sense approach is taken when considering the most appropriate response to crimes or incidents involving children," the police spokeswoman added.
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