CRIMINAL CHILDREN Kids who kill

The figures are shocking, nearly 400 children have been convicted of murder in the UK in the last two decades. And the youngest was just 11 years old. Between 2008 and 2011, 81 children were convicted of the crime in England and Wales. The children behind these gruesome deaths are often as clever and calculating as adult murderers. Some cases are truly chilling. There are different types of child killer but some clearly show psychopathic tendencies. Mary Bell became infamous for the manslaughter of Martin Brown and Brian Howe in 1968 when she was aged just 10. And the murder of two-year-old James Bulger in 1993 horrified the nation. Some children are incredibly charming and present a very plausible to story to the police. Some have difficulty separating reality and fantasy and can be labelled psychopathic. When children kill it’s always a mixture of factors including characteristics they are born with and because of the kind of environment or influences they have grown up in. The difference between a child and adult murderers is that it is possible for kids to grow out of the behaviours that led them to kill in the first place.