Ms Susanna Gillespie:

It could be a situation where the child will get a harsher penalty than an adult because they would not be subject to the deferred sentence supervision order, but research has shown the child needs to get a chance to deal with their offending behaviour. If they are given a suspended sentence, they will go off and do the crime again. They do not recognise their action leads to a punishment and if the punishment is suspended they continue their criminal behaviour.