Accountability for children

The rape of a 9-year-old girl by five boys in an undisclosed southern town in Cebu may be shocking to a lot of people and dismissed by some already numbed by crime stories in the media.

One advice given by an official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was to be open to discussion about the problem of child violence.

DSWD child and youth welfare program specialist Emma Patalinhug said rather than blaming kids for crimes they committed, they should be propped by a support system of both their parents and the community to ensure rehabilitation and avoid a repeat of othoffenses in the future.

The rationale is that this support system should ferret out negative influences that triggered the situation which led children to lead a wayward life.

This support system is expected to be more comprehensive than that for adult offenders who can’t be excused by ignorance.

Though the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act exempts minors from criminal liability, Patalinhug said these young offenders will still suffer discrimination from their neighbors and the community who’ve heard all about them.

While the goal is rehabilitation, it’s sometimes hard to accept a setup that lets a child who commits a heinous crime like murder and rape get off the hook.

Equally hard to accept, though not discounting such possibility, is the seeming frequency with which children are capable of committing these crimes nowadays, even in remote towns and provinces.

In areas where the Internet and TV are hard to come by, one can only wonder how these five boys learned how to attack a 9-year-old girl.

Was this just a case of sexual experimentation by idle youths?

Whatever convinced them to do the foul deed should be investigated and addressed by the community.

More importantly, however, is to remind and teach these youth offenders about accountability, albeit in a way that would impact positively on their young minds.

How to do that is a challenge posed first and foremost to the parents who assume chief responsibility for raising them. Other influencers are the school (if they can afford to study), neighbors, and the church.

A positive environment should be fostered not only for the child victim but the minor offender, who still has a shot at a better life.