Do the Crime, Do the Time
Tonight, as I was watching my local news, I heard about a couple of different crimes recently committed in my area. Both of the criminals were minors, one the age of 12, and the other 14. The one that was 12 stabbed a 13 year-old girl to death with a steak knife yesterday. The 14 year-old has been charged as an adult for his crime. (What it was I can’t remember.) Anyways, the usual parade of family members and “friends” have come along, demanding that he be convicted as a child, because he is a minor.
The question of charging minors as adults or as juveniles is a long, thin line. It’s been said that the part of the brain that assesses risks and consequences is not fully developed until the upper twenties. Yet I have a hard time believing that minors who kill other people don’t know what they are doing. Perhaps the best illustration I’ve heard of this was on a TV crime drama, most likely CSI, where a detective was questioning a kid about a crime. The kid refused to take any kind of a deal to rat on his co-conspirators. He had committed murder, but was not interested in getting out of jail any sooner. Why? “They have cable TV and video games.” You don’t think that kid knew what he was doing?
Bottom line is that unless the minor is very young, such as four or five, and obviously didn’t know that they were going to kill someone, or didn’t mean to, when playing with the gun, the criminal needs to be charged as and sentenced as a fully responsible person. In fact, I knew from a very young age that murder was bad, and even though we don’t have any guns in the house (a product of my parent’s unfortunate opinion that guns do not save lives, which is one of their few non-conservative positions) I knew that you just don’t play with guns and knives. We weren’t even allowed to point toy guns at each other for the longest time. At least not until I and some of my friends made a movie! 
The fact is, especially in the culture in which many of these young people grow up, they know full well that when they pull the trigger, they are committing murder. Stabbing someone to death with a steak knife, and slashing another person’s wrists? The kid may be only 12, but he knew full well that he was committing a crime. I simply fail to see how anyone could justify trying him as a juvenile offender. He’s a criminal, and if you coddle his behavior, he will grow up to be more of one.
Part of imprisonment is punishment; a larger part is ensuring that a bad individual gets off the streets. Now, the big question: does a 12-year-old who kills another person grow a conscience by 21 (when, let’s be honest, most young men have not calmed down), or does he need to be in detention until his late 30s?
If you can’t play nicely with other people, society may take away your liberty to ensure its own safety. The question is not whether or not it’s “unfair” to punish this kid beyond the age of 18 or 21 or whatever, but whether or not he will be sufficiently rehabilitated by that time so as to be able to function in society without harming someone else.
theobromophile
July 7, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Actually, I’m going to disagree with you in part. The kid who would rather play video games than get out of jail probably doesn’t understand murder in the sense that you and I do. But I’m not sure it’s age related.
We are growing a new breed of criminals who don’t believe in sin. They don’t see their victim negatively, but they don’t see anything positive either. He just is. They view killing another as something that happens, no worse than you might kill a fly that has been bothering you. They give it the same thought that a horse gives to the flies around him. Picture that horse, gently moving his tail from side to side. If he kills a fly, no problem, he just keeps moving his tail. Same for the kid who stabs another teen.
The problem is much deeper. The problem is how do we get them to grow a conscience?
Randy
July 10, 2007 at 4:48 am
Hi t,
Building on Randy’s question, I would add, what do we do with the parents of these children?
the Grit
the Grit
July 10, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Randy, when your kid is little and messing up, you tell him no, what he’s doing is bad. When he continues, you punish him. Same for these kids. Whether they are giving it the thought or not, you have to teach them that it is wrong.
Grit… the parents? Oh, you don’t wanna know what I think we should do to the parents.
thelonedrifter
July 10, 2007 at 3:59 pm
no i think that you should pay for your own mistakes because you r parents tought you right from wrong then that was your desion
Kayla
April 7, 2009 at 9:13 am