...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 that the prosecutors feel they have to file adult charges to lessen public outrage.
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 parameters. 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 seems that God set the dividing line between childhood and adulthood at 19/20 years.
How can we argue with that?
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.
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 one 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.
