ABSTRACT
We have seen in previous chapters how major theories have focused on the intellectual development of children. There is more to growing up than that, however. Since Biblical times, parents and teachers have wanted to teach children how to be good. To say you have a wellbrought-up child is still a compliment in Western societies that agonise over issues of morality. At the start of the twenty-first century, however, countries like Britain and America are having to grapple with the fact that children whom we tend to idealise as innocent are often involved not just in bad behaviour – breaking windows when playing football – but in serious crimes. The question of when children know right from wrong is no longer just an academic one but one that courts and lawyers have to decide.
