Page 222 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-13 1/10/09 8:49 AM Page 193

RETHINKING THE SOCIOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD 193

grey area where some decision-making argument to suggest that the discourse of
process will be required, on the basis of inde- children’s rights is a new form of colonial-
terminate and contested criteria, to determine ism, but at least some questions are worth
where any particular child stands on ques- asking about whether an individualized con-
tions of comprehension and capacity. One cept of ‘rights’ is in fact necessarily the best
can see this ambiguity, as Nick Lee (1999) way of advancing children’s participation
points out, in Article 12 of the UNRC: in social, political, and economic life as
well as advancing their status as citizens
State parties shall assure to the child who is capa-
ble of forming his or her own views the right to (Guggenheim, 2005).
express those views freely in all matters affecting One area where the status of citizenship is
the child, the views of the child being given due granted to children at a relatively early stage
weight in accordance with the age and maturity of is crime and the allocation of criminal
the child.
responsibility in law. The age below which
‘The child’ does not exist, there are only par- children cannot be held criminally responsi-
ticular and individual children, and any con- ble for their actions ranges from 7 to
struction of children’s rights and capacity for 18 across different national jurisdictions, but
citizenship will always have to juggle both in general children are granted this responsi-
the ‘being’ and the ‘becoming’ view of the bility well before they are able to vote, drive
child (Lee, 1999: 457). a car, serve in the army, enter into contracts,
Second, the variable capacities of children or see particular kinds of films. Normally
mean that the question of their representation there is also a ‘transition zone’between crim-
will always be an open question. The older inal infancy and adulthood where children
particular children are, the more directly they are seen as possessing a conditional criminal
will be able to represent themselves in soci- responsibility, where the presumption of
ety and politics, but at some point, at least an incapacity to form criminal intent (doli
some if not most children will need to be rep- incapax) is rebuttable, and it is the court’s task
resented by adults and their citizenship rights to assess the child’s degree of understanding
will have to be championed by others. The and moral capacity (van Krieken, 2005). This
forms taken by children’s participation will, dimension of the social construction of child-
then, remain contested and open to diverse hood shows many of the same instabilities
interpretations as to the extent to which they and volatility of the concepts of children’s
are being adequately or appropriately repre- rights and citizenship. In England, for exam-
sented, or simply functioning as proxy for ple, the 1993 murder of James Bulger triggered
other interests (Guggenheim, 2005). One of a rejection of this doli incapax presumption,
the key areas where this issue comes to the and since 1998 all English children over the
surface is the relationship between the age of 10 have been considered fully crimi-
universalism of the concept of ‘rights’ and nally responsible. In other countries, such as
the particularity of diverse cultural under- Germany, the debate is more about raising or
standings of childhood and adulthood. The lowering the age of criminal incapacity. Like
implicit norms built into the UNCRC, for questions of children’s rights, the issue of
example, appear to focus on the nuclear children’s responsibilities is also caught
family at the expense of kinship and commu- between the two conceptions of childhood –
nity networks, and they seem to value indi- being or becoming.
vidual over collective rights. This can be
problematic to the extent of seriously
undermining the meaningfulness of the Education, welfare, and health
Convention and the whole idea of children’s
rights in particular cultural settings (Burman, Although the more recent sociological
1996; Burr, 2004). It may be too strong an approaches to childhood stress the active role