An essential approach to the age assessment in undocumented minors in conflict with the law

In forensic contexts, assigning an age to a living child of unknown identity may be necessary when the child is suspect in a crime, when penal codes differentiate law and punishment for children of different ages or if the child is a refugee. The age of criminal responsibility in the UK is the lowest in Europe with other European Union Member States setting the age of criminal responsibility between 14 and 16 years. In the absence of a known birth date, any assessment of age will be difficult. The age assessment should include a comprehensive physical description of the person including: physical development, bone maturity which is observed on radiographs as the development and fusion of the long bone growth centres (e.g. in the hand and wrists) and dental age estimation (including grading tooth development both clinically and on dental radiographs). Currently there is no medical test or a group of tests that will absolutely and accurately let us know the exact chronological age of a human being. There will always be an uncertainty related to the estimate, and correctly expressing this uncertainty is just as important as the actual estimate. More research is needed to define more precisely the best standard approach for age estimation based on a combination of different methods. Furthermore, professionals working with children should always strive to take ethical guidelines into consideration in making decisions of such minors.