In Trouble
- You can be trouble in lots of different situations
- You have rights even if you are in trouble
- Your rights are there to protect you and make sure you are treated properly
You may be in trouble with the police, but you still have rights. In fact, in Wales, anyone under 18 who breaks the law should be treated as ‘a child first, and an offender second’. This doesn’t mean that you will be able to ‘get away with it’ – but it does mean that you will be treated in a way that is focused on you as a young person, and what is in your best interests. You may be worried about being in trouble at home or at school because you’ve broken rules. You may be worried about the consequences of breaking rules, even if you haven’t broken any laws, so we’ve looked at what happens if you break rules, too.
In this section, we’ve also got some information on what happens to you if you are the victim of a crime – if someone has hurt you or stolen something from you, or if you are asked to tell the police about what someone else has done.
Read blogs and news
What Dear Martin tells us about your rights as a child in Wales
Dear Martin by Nic Stone tells the story of Justyce McAllister, a strong minded seventeen-year-old black man who lives a challenging life, both in his poor neighbourhood, constantly threatened by local criminals, and at the overwhelmingly white prep school he attends....
Reading My Rights- The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon is a book that follows the journey of 15 year old Christopher, who has autism. When he finds his neighbour’s dog dead, Christopher sets off to unravel the mystery of who was responsible, whilst writing...
Smacking in Wales – why will the law soon be different to England?
Smacking in Wales will soon be banned (from 2022). You may have seen in the news earlier this year when this change in the law in Wales was announced. So why is the law going to be different in Wales and what difference will the change make to children? What does the...