Children Prosecuted As Adults. How Young Is Too Young?

What story is now a film?

 

HBO did a good documentary on this case (i think it was HBO) this was not a fit of anger, this was not a spur of the moment thing. This was planned for days, they were gonig to do it in a bathroom but did not for whatever reason, so they took her to a field, one girl did the deed but only after the other girl gave the order, these are sick individuals, regardless of the age. To watch the police interview, they react like any serial killer, calm, detailed and if memory serves showed little remorse.

I'm not religious but even the bible states an Eye for an Eye. There is a case going back to the 90's

Erik Smith was 13 when he killed a 4 year old and sodimized him, luckily he is still in prison since like 93-94 (probably the most famous case of child murderers)

Paul Henry Gingrich was 12

Lionel Tate 12 got life in prison

These cases are as bad as the Slender Man, all premeditated like the Slender Man all tried as adults also, rightfully so IMO. There are crazy kids you went to school with who would bully kids, talk trash to teachers and do bad things but than there are the bat shit crazies who just don't fit in society.

 

Are you a parent and do you know (or at least think you know) everything about your child?

I think it's only natural for there to be a line between parenting and letting a kid blossom on his/her own, these parents today feel they need to know everything and every thought their kid has, it's sickening... hell my cousin went to prom dinner with her kid and another couple.... sickening!!!

I'm in no way a mental case but I'm private, people know me through and through but not my own family, they never did and I never gave them any more than I felt they needed to know. Being a kid on the internet (15-16) back in the mid 90's I found people online I could open up to and be myself (hell my mom once through away 5 notebooks of poetry cause she didn't know or care what they were) and I don't think it's different now except kids have to be sneakier if they want to be private, parents can track everything especially through social media, back than it was email and chat rooms that disappeared after 10 minutes.

 

You bring up a state, govt issue though. I know of a person around age 60 who suffers from delusions of grander, one day threatened someone in front of his house with a samarai sword cause he though he was a threat. Long story short he sat in prison for 6 months waiting to get a bed in the mental health facilities, at least in my state it's a broken system... oh and recently that place is under huge scrutiny for their management of EVERYTHIING.

 

I believe that in almost all cases children and adults should be treated differently, otherwise there is no use making a distinction between the two justice systems. Children have inarguable neurological differences, they are more impulsive, and less able to understand the consequences of their actions--it is also understood that prefrontal cortex development does not finish until someone reaches their 20's. Even if a child appears to commit an "adult crime"--murder, sexual assault, the crime is not committed with an adult understanding or adult reasoning abilities.

You must also take into consideration the effects of the penal system, which are often very negative. I have worked in juvenile prisons, and they are not uplifting places, and I can imagine that the adult version is no improvement. Prisons do not rehabilitate, and you must consider that you are sentencing a very young person with a lot of life ahead of them to a dismal future. Perhaps even further corrupting that child and their chances of rehabilitation.

 

No, that is not what I said. There is a difference in knowing your child and who they are and smothering them to death and suffocating them and not allowing them to blossom on their own. I would never want to suffocate anything.....I am a very private person, also.....and I understand the need for privacy.

 

Everyone's opinions are very important to me and I appreciate everyone's participation.


Life is so short for all of us.
These children will not have families, no friends, no weddings, no children, no love.They have the rest of their lives, however long time gives them, to look forward to nothing. I'm just.......I don't know........just sad for them.

 

OK you bring up a good point, so where would you draw the line? If the girls in the original post were 17 should they be tried as adults just like an 18 year old? How bout 16, 15 ect... where do you draw the line between a socialpath killing child vs adult when it comes to justice?

 

The brain of a child is different than that an adult.

Prosecuting a child as an adult is societies way of finding a short-term solution to a much more complicated problem



Hotwater

 

when law is about vengence instead of prevention, prisons become schools for crime. that is the only reason for juvinile incarceration to be isolated from 'adult'.
if the real cause of THAT problem were honestly addressed, this question would even be one.

old enough to do the crime is old enough to do the time, but, we do need to think more about what should be a crime and consiquence of it, is appropriate and reasonable.

what the hamarabi precedent really set, is that no punishment should be greater then the crime that was committed.

there's also a problem with the indifference to accuracy with which terms like 'child', adolescent, and 'adult', are thrown around.

a child is someone who has not yet entered physical puberty.
an adolescent is someone under the age of legal adulthood, who has.

the latter is an arbitrary number, inshrined in law, that may represent a cultural consensus, but really has nothing to do with an individual's capacity to accept personal responsibility.
a capacity which may begin even before puberty, or in some individuals, never develop at all.

 

Not to split hairs over semantics but courts actually do that .... just maybe not using that exact word. They rather say things like "deliberately premeditated malice aforethought" or "extreme indifference to the value of human life". That's why you have things like aggravation.

Doctors, on the other hand get their semantics from the DSM-5.

Oh, and there is such a thing as evil.

 

But let's not forget!
The courts are not talking, treating the child as an adult! It is mearly treating the crime, and has decided the crime is sufficient to be in a court of law, rather than a juvenile court! This is a rare occurrence, and is only decided once other things have been decided..

A child knows right from wrong at an early age!
Would you punish your own child at ten for stealing? You all think they wouldn't do it, but a handful will!
Would you punish your child for being a bully? Again, we all think our child wouldn't be the ring leader, but some are, and we still decline to think they are not lead!
Children kill and torture animals, children treat their parents like they owe them something..
Very occasionally, children kill..
Very occasionally, if left, they will carry on killing, then society goes! Oh dear, all the signs were there, but they were just a child! We didn't think!
That's the problem! You don't think! Because we can't comprehend that a child would know what it was doing!

Tsk!

Ask the families of the children murdered! Do you know any of their names?
No! It's likely you never will..But they deserve your sympathy, not the children who murdered!
They will have had thousands spent on them in being reabilitated, then given another chance, to what, be a good citizen? Unlikely!
Sorry, I have no sympathy with these kids, but I do with some members of their families, but mostly, the victims and their families! They did nothing wrong! But will suffer their entire lives!
No sympathy here!

 

Children have fewer rights in Family Court. They aren't entitled to a jury trial or to a bail hearing and they can be locked up indefinitely until they turn either 21 or 25, unlike in adult court where you're given a specific sentence. Also, The Slender Man stabbing has gotten a lot of attention because something like this almost never happens. Most, almost all violent crime is committed by adult males.

 

You don’t honestly believe a child could be born evil or are you talking possession?

If you are and we use the movie The Exorcist as an example, At the end of the movie Regan should have been charged with second degree homicide, multiple counts of assault and battery, along with gross, lewd, and lascivious behavior (also a felony) for exposing her genitals


Hotwater

 

If it were real! But it's a film lol

 

Of course the movie was a product of fiction, but so wasn’t slender man who inspired two young girls in Waukesha Wisconsin to stab their 12 year old friend to death



Hotwater

 

Please don't try to put this bullshit on me. I believe you are way too intelligent for that.

Maybe I should have said "there is such a thing as being evil".

And I'm sure you know a thing or two about how some humans behave and therefore you know exactly what I mean.

 

If Annisa and Morgan were 17, yes they should be tried as adults just like an 18 year old.

16 years old yes.
15 years old or less... no.

Can you rephrase your first and last question? "Draw the line between" is confusing to me. Was me giving you the age answering your draw questions? I'm respectfully asking and will wait for your reply.

 

We should try people younger than 18 as adults when we decide to let them vote and serve on juries.

 

In the state of Wisconsin a 16 year old child can obtain a probationary driver's license. If the state feels that the mental development of a child can obey traffic laws accordingly, then I would feel confident that the child can be tried as an adult starting at the age of 16.

I'm not sure if this is me answering the question? "Draw the line" from dental_floss's post.