...tried as an adult.
(UK, 1870's) James Scullion: 13. James Scullion was sentenced to 14 days of hard labor at Newcastle City Gaol for stealing clothes. After this, he was sent to Market Weighton Reformatory School for 3 years. rarehistoricalphotos.com
I am conflicted...
I am conflicted about children being tried as adults in a Court of Law.
What is the point of an age-segregated judicial system - if prosecutors can take under-age suspects out of juvenile proceedings and stuff them into adult court?
I suspect that sometimes the horror of the crime must make the public so angry -
the prosecutors feel they have to file adult charges to lessen public outrage.
And...perhaps to discourage other kids that age from committing such crimes.
Still... either childhood is a sanctuary, or it is not. And many times, the children committing these
crimes - have never experienced any kind of sanctuary as a child.
Fatherless & brutalized.
In my opinion, though I am 'a New Testament guy', I feel standards of adulthood should follow the Old Testament guidelines. 19-year-olds are still children, and 20-year-olds are adults.
In Numbers 1: 1-4, of the Old Testament:
"The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said:
"The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said:
2 “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.
3 You and Aaron are to count according to their divisions all the men in Israel who are twenty years old or more and able to serve in the army.
4 One man from each tribe, each of them the head of his family, is to help you."
Chapters 13 and 14 of 'Numbers', the fourth book of the Old Testament, in the Torah,
talks about the adult Israelites, freshly freed from 400+ years of slavery, being given a job to do, and refusing to do it. So, they sinned against God by refusing to obey Him.
The entire lot of Israelites, young and old, were forced to wander in the wilderness until everyone 20+ years-old had perished in the wilderness.
(those left over after God executed the leaders of the rebellion and rioting).
So, it may be that God set the dividing line between childhood and adulthood at 19/20 years. What do you think?
If I were in charge, the following acts could only be initiated by 20+ year-olds as legal adults:
1) Dating and Marriage.
Sex makes babies, and only legally married adults should have sex and conceive children.
2) Consenting to medical procedures.
(WIKI: In 5 US states, tattoos are illegal for minors, even with parental consent.)
3) Owning liable property, those things that could bring harm to others. (Cars, guns, etc.)
Liable property, for a minor's use, should be owned by the child's legal guardian
*with an automatic transfer upon adulthood, to prevent parental theft).
4) Voting and jury duty.
5) Entering legal contracts that incurs debt, including a college education.
6) Purchasing alcohol, etc.
7) Military enlistment or conscription. Becoming a police officer.
*** I think this is the main reason why men are more likely to be named in the Old Testament,
because of military conscription.
8) Being charged of crimes as an adult.
...TRIED AS AN ADULT.
God's age of accountability
We know that humans make selfish choices even when very young, even before they become accountable for their sins. And yes, some children die before they are able to make sense of God, so how can they repent of their sins? They can't.
The Book of Jonah in the Old Testament talks about God not wanting to destroy Ninevah, partly because there were children there that didn't even know their left hand from their right hand. Read it, you can find it on the internet.
So, accountability is important to God.
I don't know exactly what the human age of accountability before God is,
but I want to sketch a trail, from God's accountability - to minors being charged as adults.
What if, what if - God treated the children of judges and prosecutors, cops and attorneys
elected and appointed officials, pastors and teachers, doctors and nurses -
like US courts treat minors when they are charged as adults?
After all, the children of such intelligent, educated, dedicated, servants should raise their children to be a couple of notches above the children of ordinary blue-collar grunts, eh?
And should certainly before better that school dropout-fatherless children, eh?
The children of educated people should outperform the children of ordinary people, eh?
Let's imagine that a County Prosecutor has a child die of some illness at 11-years-old,
but she tended to ignore the Golden Rule when it came to her little brother.
She was regularly mean to him, So God decides to judge this 11-year-old girl as an adult.
What would the prosecutor think of that?
What would be the eternal fate of that little girl?
(but, at 11-years-old, she is old enough to be a Muslim's wife...)
Now while this won't happen, because God isn't like that,
does this little fable give anyone pause for thought about prosecuting minors as adults?