Age assessment practices: a literature review & annotated ... - Unicef

Fundamental Hindu precepts strongly support the notion of the innocence of children, and
tend to lend support to higher MACRs (Yubaraj, 2004 in Cipriani, 1995:22), as does
Buddhism. Bhutan‟s laws are based on Buddhist principles, which are considered
conducive to the protection of children‟s rights. The Buddhist perspective sees children as
coming into the world with a pure mind, but at risk of being influenced by 80,000 identified
types of external disturbances. Since children and young adults are susceptible to these
disturbances, caring adults bear the responsibility of protecting the development of children.
In light of these principles, the Penal Code refuses any possibility of criminal liability for
children younger than 10, and explicitly grants judges the authority to consider reduced
sentences and other appropriate facilities, instead of imprisonment, to respond to children
above the MACR (Cipriani, 1995:23).
While legal definitions of childhood and the acquisition of rights and responsibilities are
increasingly demarcated by precise chronological age limits, anthropological insights into
age, custom and tradition, and rites of passage should not be dismissed as they can be of
real value in helping those who are tasked with making an assessment of a child‟s age to
understand the cultural contexts from which children come. Anthropological observations
can help others understand why some children may look or behave older than might be
expected of children in other societies.
2.2 Measures of age: Chronological, biological, social and developmental age
The significance of chronological age has gained salience in response to the development
of laws and policies that rely on age as a marker or boundary, and in light of evidence of
biologically based universality in children‟s physical and cognitive development. Children‟s
bones are seen to follow a predictable path of development and muscular development
follows and sequential process (as discussed in Section 4.1 below), and it is widely
accepted that some significant changes in physical strength, agility and cognitive and social
competencies take place at specific stages in children‟s development (Lansdown, 2005:23).
However, some argue that it is wrong to make age-related assumptions about levels of
decision-making competence, and that the rigid application of laws prescribing ages at
which certain rights come into play do not reflect the reality of decisions and levels of
responsibility of which children are capable (Lansdown, 2005:49). Findings from crosscultural
comparisons of competency show that children‟s levels of functioning are far from
universal and that where different assumptions of competence apply, different behaviours
and practices arise. Gender, class, culture, disability and ethnicity, as well as age, all
influence children‟s lives and their capacities (Settersten et al, 1997).
Other measures of age include biological age, social age and psychological age. Biological
age is defined by an individual‟s present position with respect to his or her potential life
span, meaning that an individual may be younger or older than his or her chronological age.
Social age is defined by an individual‟s roles, responsibilities and habits with respect to other
members of the society of which he or she is a part. An individual may therefore be older or
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