I believe one of the beauties of minors is that the crimes they commit rarely affect them as adults. Children below the age of seven years are not even charged because they don’t know the difference between right and wrong, and that’s understandable. But the older they get, the more likely they are to be held accountable for their crimes. But how exactly are minors not generally sent to prison, are they?
They’re sent to juvenile centers, where they will be remanded until they turn eighteen. When they become adults, their records are wiped clean, and it’s almost as if they’re given a clean slate to resume life from where they left off. Unlike adults, whose rap sheet will always follow them wherever they go.
But then, does this style of justice work? If a fourteen-year-old kid kills another fourteen-year-old in cold blood, should he just be allowed to waltz back into society when he turns eighteen? What about his victims’ families? Can you really say that justice was served in that case? Honestly, I see how such a thing will look. I guess that the law just wants to assume that by then, the child would have learned their lesson and also try to live a different life as an adult.
However, I know for a fact that there are also extenuating circumstances. There are cases where children are tried as adults. There are crimes that some children will commit, you will have to try them as adults due to the amount of planning and just how diabolical they are. As they say, it gets to a point where you can no longer hide behind the banner of being a child. When you start making grown-up adult decisions, which come with very grown-up consequences.
The truth is, when it comes to the law, there are a lot of grey areas because no two cases can ever be the same. It’s true that one act should never destroy a person’s entire life. It’s just like saying a child who pushes another accidentally and causes their death should be punished for it the same way an adult might get punished. Ruining their life like that will not be fair, especially if that was never their intention.
But when the law will most likely view them as adults is when there is evidence of planning, strategy, and even manipulation to deceive the officers. That’s just how these things can be. While some kids are watching cartoons and playing LEGO, others are geniuses who are mastering complex textbooks. And some are just sick in the head and on the prowl for victims.
Accidents will always happen, but heinous acts will always happen as well. So, it will always be up to the court and the lawyers to determine just how terrible the crime is and if it’s worth the child being tried as an adult. In this case, the victims don’t get top billing, the children do. That’s life.
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