Lets see some balanced discussion from the tabloids on the Bulger case. (Young Offenders - What Should The Law Do With Them?)

Member Name: samantha

Product:	Young Offenders - What Should The Law Do With Them?
Date:	13/01/01 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Correct treatment of young offenders is the sign of a civilised society.

Disadvantages: What good would keeping them locked up do?

I really have had enough of the sun reader mentality that pervades every newspaper story, every television programme, every 'rational discussion' concerning the release of Thompson and Venables.

Children, 10-year-old children, do not have the same perceptions as rational adults, and even some adults also have legal excuses for serious crimes. Until recently we had recognition of this by the doctrine of doli incapax, a doctrine which has since been abolished.

The young boys can in no way be described as evil - evil is a ridiculous term, it summons up religious ideals that have no place in many peoples life and have absolutely no place in our legal system. Look at how the newspapers sneer at Islamic law, yet up hold harsher sentencing for people that society perceives as 'evil'.

Saying the two boys are evil is an excuse, a way to distance yourself from the thought that they may be just the same as any other 10 year old boys, the way you or me may have been when younger.

Once people can get their heads round the fact that the boys are normal it leads to the more difficult questions of why this happened.

Dreadful as this will sound to many I am sure, I firmly believe, this was an aberration, a very unfortunate case of 2 boys meeting, coming from similarly disturbed backgrounds, and feeding off each other in a game that got completely out of hand.


I am not the only person to believe this, it is quite a widely held view in the rational writings of psychiatrists, social workers and academics.

This does not excuse them nor suggest the family should feel any less grief or anger its simply a suggestion that the gutter press are not interested in pursuing as it makes the crime as close to 'normal' as far away from two 'evil' plotting boys as it is possible to take it.

Our press has done this country a disservice by whipping up society into a frenzy by representing only
the very base of arguments.

A bit of balance would be nice, it would also be more constructive than exploitative and irrational reports and headlines that do nothing to help the now adult thompson and venables nor the family of james bulger.

Summary: