Psychometric Challenges in the Measurement of Constructs Underlying Criminal Responsibility in Children and Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

At present, many countries have lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility to deal with the trend of juvenile crime. In practical terms, whether countries advocate for lowering the age of criminal responsibility along with early puberty, or regulating the minimum age of juvenile criminal responsibility through their policies, their deep-rooted hypothesis is that age is tied to adolescents’ psychological growth, and, with the rise in age, the capacity for dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy gradually improves. With this study, we aimed to test whether this hypothesis is valid. The participants were 3,208 students from junior high school, senior high school, and freshman in the S province of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). We subjected the gathered materials to independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), linear regression analysis, and Bonferroni post hoc test. The influence of the age variable upon dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy was significant (p = 0.002, p = 0.000, p = 0.072), but only empathy was positively correlated with age variable (B = 0.032); dialectical thinking ability (B = −0.057), and self-control ability (B = −0.212) were negatively correlated with the age variable. Bonferroni post hoc test confirmed these findings. Therefore, we concluded the following: (1) Juvenile criminal responsibility, based on the capacity for dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy, is not positively correlated with age. (2) Age is not the only basis on which to judge a juvenile’s criminal responsibility. (3) More research that directly links age differences in brain structure and function to age differences in legally relevant capacities and capabilities(e.g., dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy) is needed. (4) Political countries should appropriately raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility and adopt the doli incapax principle in the judicial process.

Can lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility be justified? A critical review of China's recent amendment

“…This leads to a ‘time gap’ which leaves middle adolescents most prone to commit crimes (Walsh, 2011). This finding is confirmed by a recent study conducted in China, which shows that the self‐control ability of children continuously decreases from the ages of eleven to 15 years, and then U‐turns to a rising trend (Shang et al., 2022). Therefore, even adopting the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2019, General Comment No.24's recommendation to set the MACR at 14 years, arguably it still fails to protect the most vulnerable group of middle adolescents, at around 15 years of age, which has the weakest ability to exercise self‐control.…”

Can lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility be justified? A critical review of China's recent amendment

“…This leads to a 'time gap' which leaves middle adolescents most prone to commit crimes (Walsh, 2011). This finding is confirmed by a recent study conducted in China, which shows that the self-control ability of children continuously decreases from the ages of eleven to 15 years, and then U-turns to a rising trend (Shang et al, 2022). Therefore, even adopting the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2019, General Comment No.24's recommendation to set the MACR at 14 years, arguably it still fails to protect the most vulnerable group of middle adolescents, at around 15 years of age, which has the weakest ability to exercise self-control.…”

Peer assumption: an illusory consensus hidden in the criminal responsibility of juvenile offender—evidence from psychology

“…This data came from the empirical study of the age growth of teenagers’ three capacity for criminal responsibility conducted by Professor Shang Y’s team of Shandong Normal University. After a preliminary overall selection and two supplementary selections, the study involved students from junior to senior three in S County, as well as some first-year students from S University, S Province, China, finally selecting a sample of 3,208 people ( Shang et al, 2022 ). Then, we excluded 759 samples of students over the age of 18, remaining 2,449 samples for our research.…”

“…In 2022, an empirical study on 3,208 junior high school, senior high school and freshman students in S Province of the People's Republic of China showed that although age variables have significant effects on dialectical thinking ability, self-control ability and empathy ability, only empathy ability has a trend of strengthening with the increase of age. However, recognition ability and control ability were negatively correlated with age variables (Shang et al, 2022). Therefore, it is impossible to understand the overall development of juvenile ability of responsibility solely through the growth of age.…”