Posted by deirdrehbrt on March 1, 2006, at 20:28:47
In reply to Juvenile Justice?, posted by Racer on March 1, 2006, at 17:04:15
A few things come to mind with this:
The first is that in my state, girls as young as 13, and boys as young as 14 are permitted to marry, with parental consent. It seems this state feels that in some cases, children this young are able to make adult decisions.
***DON'T GET THE BLOOD BOILING JUST YET***
I know of no cases where that has happened. This is a very old law, from a different time. It's just still on the books.IRL, I think that children are funamentally different than adults. I see it in my own children. I see the difference in the six years separating my daughters. It seems to me that children work on a more primal level. Their concerns are self preservation, play, learning, etc. They haven't learned yet that society is something that needs to be contributed to. They are necessarily narcissistic, and that's as it should be.
As far as punishment for crimes, I think that what's happening is that we are hearing more about children who commit crimes on the news. It is occupying a disproportionately large segment of the news. Things such as Columbine and other school shootings took up major segments on the news. Every time a child commits a violent act, or brings a gun into the school place, it makes front-page news.
People start to think "Something has to be done". "These children must be held accountable". In my opinion, children don't make this up. Children learn, and children act out. Putting children away as criminals doesn't alter what other children learn. They are learning from adults.
Obviously, if a child commits a violent act, or crime, if you will, there needs to be some action taken. I don't think that the nature of that action should rest with a jury of twelve who knows nothing about child psychology. Even judges, I don't think, are qualified to make such decisions.
Perhaps, pre trial, if the particular child is shown to have "grown-up faculties", and was in full awareness of the act and it's consequences, that child should be held to the same standard as an adult, but I don't think that most children fall into that category.
In my opinion, a child who commits a horrible crime, is, in fact, a very sick child, in need of care. I'm in favor of the juvenile court system. Holding children to the same standards as adults makes about as much sense as holding your cat accountable for throwing up on the comforter. They aren't equipped for that accountability.
Ok... babbling again.
--Dee
poster:deirdrehbrt
thread:614721
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060204/msgs/614779.html