The 11-year-old rioter sidles up beside you. ‘Pssst,’ he says, looking shifty. He indicates the bulge beneath his tracksuit top. ‘Wanna buy a waste paper basket?’

Yes, I know it’s no laughing matter. That child is a thief and, in this country at least, is old enough to be held responsible for his criminal activities.

We set the age of criminal responsibility at 10 years, which is the lowest in Europe apart from Scotland, which (incredibly, I think) holds its citizens criminally responsible from age seven.

Scandinavia sets the bar at 15 years, but Belgium is a beacon of liberal thinking with 18 years.

Nonetheless, we are talking about England, and that 11-year-old boy knows that he shouldn’t have half-inched that waste paper basket, priced £50, from Debenhams in Romford, Essex during the recent riots.

And quite rightly, he has had to face the full majesty of the law.

Hot off the presses, the punishment he is to receive was announced today. He has been given an 18-month youth rehabilitation order, which is a form of community sentence for young offenders.

There is as yet no news of what punishment awaits the 11-year-old girl arrested for attempted criminal damage during the riots in Nottingham. She was unrepentant, apparently, and refused to apologise to the judge - and was remanded into custody.

Serves her right, some people might say, because she is a year older than the age of criminal responsibility in this country and must therefore know better.

It does feel wrong, though. Let’s remind ourselves of what kids of that age are like. If they are 11-years-old, then they are enjoying the dying days of their summer holidays before making the big leap from primary to secondary school.

They will be a familiar sight over the coming days, children in brand new school uniforms, with round eyes, on their way to that scary Big School where some of their fellow pupils will be really, really, really old – 16, even.

What would any of them gain from a court appearance, other than recurrent nightmares?

Or maybe the authorities know something we don’t. Perhaps the real reason for the trials was – no pun intended – to read the riot act to the parents.

After all, what were their 11-year-old children doing out alone, with thugs, riots and petrol bombs all around?

Should the parents be punished for their children’s misdeeds, including - controversially - eviction from council housing? Should they attend compulsory parenting classes?

Or should we just carry on arresting and remanding 11-year-olds?