INTRODUCTION

The criminal law has a role to play, no less important for being indirect, in the protection of children and young people. It protects everyone in society from the harmful acts of others: the prohibitions on murder, rape or assault, or theft, fraud or dangerous driving are designed to secure benefit for everybody, whatever their age. But children and young people, being physically weaker and intellectually less developed than adults, are peculiarly vulnerable to harm and exploitation – particularly from those closest to them. They might suffer injury not just from the deliberate infliction of harm but also from the neglect of the care and attention that they need, or from the usages to which they are put by the adults who have the easiest access to them. The criminal law has long recognised that children and young people require more protection from harm than that offered to adults, and so makes punishable certain acts or omissions that would not be criminal if directed towards adults.

Yet the criminal law's protection is of necessity only very partial. Its focus is primarily on the criminal and not the victim. It seeks to reduce the overall incidence of harm by imposing sanctions on the criminal, and thus making the crime less attractive, to the benefit of all potential victims. The limitations of deterrence by the criminal law are well known, and an effective form of child protection came about only when the courts were given the power, in the late nineteenth century, not only to punish wrongdoing but also to take action in relation to child victims. Only then could we conceive of child protection law as being a body of law in its own right distinct from, if still activated by, the criminal law.

Other than with very specialist crimes such as plagium, which is an aggravated form of theft of a child under the age of puberty (the victim being the parent with the right to possession of the child), there are two major categories of crimes in respect of which children and young people, but not adults, may be the victim: certain sexual offences, and child neglect or cruelty.