Often, whenever a young person commits a crime, the age of the culprit is one of the first questions that is asked because there is a belief that a juvenile cannot be criminally culpable under the law. A juvenile is an individual who is less than 18 years of age while a child who is less than seven years old cannot be criminally liable.
Under the law, a child who is between seven to 11 years is also incapable of being held criminally liable except where it is proved that the child knew that what he was doing was wrong at the time of committing the offence.
So what is the process of dealing with a case involving a juvenile in Nigeria? When a juvenile is suspected to have committed an offence, such a child is arrested like an adult and any statement made by the juvenile to the arresting officer can be used against him in court.
The juvenile is taken to the police station for fingerprinting and photographing after which he is charged before a Juvenile Court which is presided over by a Magistrate. And if such a child is found guilty upon prosecution, he is sentenced according to the law. But unlike the adult trial in a regular court, the trial of a juvenile is not open to the public because the right to privacy is provided for a child under Section 8 of the Child Rights Act 2003 and this is respected at all stages of child justice administration in order to avoid labeling, character assassination or harm being caused to the child by undue publicity. As a result, only interested parties, lawyers and other accredited persons are given access to the courtrooms.
However, there are two instances where a juvenile can be tried in regular court; when he commits a capital offence, that is, an offence that is punishable by death or when he is charged together with an adult for an offence: a child that jointly commits an offence with an adult and is charged together with the adult would be tried in a regular court.
But while a juvenile can be tried for capital offences, he cannot be sentenced to death. Irrespective of the offence committed, instead of the death penalty, convicted juveniles are housed in facilities referred to as Borstal homes and not the normal prison facility in order to protect them.
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