This book focuses on the issue of the judging of children in an adult court and the importance of relevant rehabilitation. It in no way sensationalises nor defends Mary Bell’s crimes but shows how the legal system needs to be adapted when dealing with children. It certainly made me think about it differently. ( )

'I believe Mary Bell's childhood experiences...to be the key to the tragedy'
By sally tarbox on 6 April 2016
Format: Hardcover
A gripping and thought-provoking read, as the author considers the murders in 1968 of two little boys by 11 year old Mary Bell. Sereny had attended court at the time and wrote an earlier book on the case. Here she catches up with Mary Bell - now released and living under a new name with her partner and child - and in lengthy interviews with her tries to understand her thinking and motivations at the time.

I found the construction of the book worked well; rather than just working through Mary's life chronologically, Sereny begins at the time of the offence, then interposes discussions with Mary with memories of her time at a remand centre and later an adult prison. Not until the end does Sereny give us any great detail about Mary's early childhood, which helps explain her later crimes. Throughout Mary's life, like an evil genius, is the corrosive presence of her mother.

My feelings on Mary remained ambivalent; an unlikeable child, yet undoubtedly traumatized for life by her experiences. But could an intelligent 11 year old REALLY not understand the finality of death? Sereny's criticisms of the legal system as regards child offenders are persuasive however. ( )

I'm disappointed because I thought this book would be something it wasn't. I thought we'd get into the psyche of sociopathic, murderous children. I thought we'd get statistics or at least qualitative data. Instead, this is essentially a biography of a single child with no information about the generalizability of her story. If that interests you, you'll like this true crime biography. But if you want more, you'll be disappointed. The question of why children kill -- the book's subtitle -- is never answered. ( )

If you are at all interested in true crime, you must read this book. Mary Bell was an 11 year old murderer labeled a monster by everyone. After reading this book, it doesn't by any means excuse what she did, but it sure makes it a hell of a lot easier to understand why. Insightful and tragic story. ( )

Gitta Sereny wrote two books about Mary Bell, a child killer. This is the second, written long after the events that culminated in Mary Bell's convictions for manslaughter - murder reduced to the lesser offence on the ground of diminished responsibility. Mary Bell was 10 when she killed for the first time. She was 11 when she killed her second victim. Cries Unheard is based on extensive interviews with Mary Bell, her family and the families of her victims. Gitta Sereny writes with extraordinary penetration, insight and understanding of the nature of personal responsibIlity for murder. (She has also written, with equal penetration, studies of Fritz Stangl and Albert Speer.) The central point of Sereny's studies, I believe, is the necessity, before condemnation or compassion, to understand, so far as we can, the nature of human evil and guilt for wrongdoing. One central issue in the Mary Bell studies - it is a philosophical issue - which has continuing resonance for me as a criminal lawyer is what it means for a person to intend to kill another person; a particularly difficult question when the person who kills is a child. Intention requires an understanding of what it is that one intends. Understanding the meaning of death in the particular circumstances of doing something that will cause death is widely variable across the human population. Depending on age and many other factors, children are particularly likely to lack any rational understanding of what it means for another person to die. ( )