Raising a New Generation of Criminals

On March 1, 2005, the United States Supreme Court outlawed the execution of individuals who were children, under the age of 18, when they committed a crime. Until this ruling was passed, the United States had executed over half the number of children, 19 out of 39, who were under 18 between 1990 and 2005. After all, who can imagine placing a ten-year-old child on a death row gurney in order to inject the child with a lethal cocktail to put that child to death because he killed a playmate? What benefit is provided when a 17 year old is put to death after being beaten and starved most of his life due to a mental disability, however, when he strikes back, he is charged as an adult? How do we consider ourselves "civilized" when we have so little respect for the most vulnerable among us?

Nevertheless, every day there is another child who is being charged as an adult and sent to prison. One of the most recent cases involves a child who is only 8 years old, yet may be charged with two counts of premeditated murder. Whether he will be sent to a juvenile facility until he is 18 or place there until he can be sent to prison remains to be seen. The overriding concern will be how does a child this young have the mental capacity to understand the consequences of his actions? Many issues and questions will have to be answered from this child's physical, emotional, and cognitive development and whether there were exigent circumstances that led up to the murders.

Worse yet, ordinary childhood behaviors are being criminalized. Temper tantrums, grabbing someone's arm, having an asthma attack, and not taking a nap have all resulted in a child being handcuffed, arrested, taken to the local police station where they are fingerprinted and photographed for a mug shot. Most of these were children under the age of eight.

Children do not have the mental capacity to understand the consequences of their actions. This includes any child under the age of 18. Studies have found that the emotional and cognitive development of children, because of the level of their immaturity, impulsiveness, and vulnerability, does not automatically and arbitrarily end at the onset of reaching the age of 18. This is why they are not allowed to drink before the age of 21, make legal contracts, drive a vehicle without parental permission, or buy cigarettes.

However, perhaps the fact that we allow our children to join military service at the age of 18, where they face the chance of being killed in combat, proves we do not value them as much as the lip service to the notion that children are our most valuable resource?

Children who are charged as adults are frequently given life in prison without parole for the more heinous crimes committed. To do something like this only throws away the child by placing him in a facility populated by older "hardened" criminals. The chances of being subjected to bullying, physical, and sexual abuse are 100% for these kids. Doing so forces them to adapt and learn from being at the mercy of these criminals, many who became so and without ever going through the juvenile justice system.

Many of the other lesser "crimes" often sees the child placed in therapy for aggressive or inappropriate behavior for doing something that is normally a natural part of growing up. It also opens the door for the trauma of being treated as a juvenile offender and a criminal escalating into even more criminal behavior. It is apparent that children should not be charged as an adult nor do they belong in prison when they are under 18 years old. Because they are children, their capacity for rehabilitation is high and they deserve to be able to undergo extensive counseling, training, and support.

In the meantime, it is becoming more apparent everyday that our capacity for common sense and our very humanity are disappearing into extinction.

Sources:

PUBLIC ENEMY NO.1, CITY SUED FOR CUFFING 4-YR.-OLD NAP NIXERS, By DENISE BUFFA

Kindergartener Handcuffed For Temper Tantrum, By John Slattery, Jan 28, 2008

The Age of Criminalizing Children, Victoria Hardy, March 13, 2008