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53 L. Q. Rev. 364 (1937)
The History of the Criminal Liability of Children

handle is hein.journals/lqr53 and id is 376 raw text is: THE HISTORY OF THE CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF CHILDREN. I. N the Anglo-Saxon laws there are few references to the criminal liability of children. The laws of Ine 1 say that a boy of ten ought to know not to commit theft. More valuable is the enactment of Aethelstan ' which says that robbers above the age of twelve ought not to be pardoned. This implies two things: (1) That his youth would not prevent the child being guilty. (2) That robbers, at any rate, might be pardoned if they were less than twelve years of age. Later evidence confirms the view that in early times infancy was no defence, but that it was usual for the child to have a pardon. In the Eyre of Kent3 it is said that 'an infant under the age of seven years, though he be convicted of felony, shall go free of judgement because he knoweth not of good and evil '. The Register of Writs ' gives a form of pardon for a child under seven found guilty of homicide. Fitzherbert I says that if an infant of eight years old kill a man, the tenor of the record shall be moved into the Chancery by writ of certiorari so that the infant may have his pardon. *What is the explanation of this procedure? It is generally agreed that the earliest forms of legal procedure were grounded in vengeance.7 Holmes,$ applying his own sense of justice to primitive conditions, maintained that vengeance was in general taken only against the deliberate wrongdoer; even a dog, he says, distinguishes between being stumbled over and being '7. 2. 2 VI, 1, 1. * 1313-4; S. S. vol. 24, 109. * Cf. Y. B. Hil. 4 Edw. 1I (1310/1) pl. 14n. (S. S. vol. 26, p. 20), where a child was in mercy, but was pardoned because he was within age. Cf. Select Bills in Evre, S. S. vol. 30, p. 124; also Y. B. Mich. 6 Edw. 11 (1312) pl. 11 (S. S. vol: 34, p. 43). 1687 ed. f. 309b. N. N. B.. 248. Holmes, Common Law, Lecture 1. Wigmore, Anglo-American Legal History, Iil. Op. cit. 3-4.

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