It’s so hard to know what to think in these cases, and I’m glad I’m not the judge who has to decide. A 14-year-old boy in Tennessee is accused of raping and killing a 3-year-old girl. Right now, the courts have to decide if the boy will be tried as an adult or not.
Tennessee law seems have some gaping holes in it, leaving the final decision not up to the law so much as up to the judge. Someone who’s 18 is automatically an adult. Someone who’s 16 or 17 may be tried as an adult in certain cases. And someone younger than that can be tried as an adult, if there’s rape or aggravated assault involved, but won’t be unless someone actively seeks to have them re-identified as such.
One consideration is that a 14-year-old, if tried and convicted as an adult, would go to jail, and while they are not put in the general population until they are 18, they also would not have access to the entire juvenile rehabilitation system that is in place for most teenage offenders. If teenaged criminals are to have a chance to come back from their mistakes, they need access to education, medical care, counseling and mentorship. But if a teen is tried as an adult, they won’t have access to those things.
This is a horrific crime, and there need to be serious and unbending consequences. No punishment can bring back a little girl, or redeem the last terrible minutes of her short life. But how responsible is a 14-year-old for an action like this?
Some psychologists say they aren’t; they can’t truly understand the implications of their actions. They just aren’t developed enough for that. Is it right to punish a person for a crime he couldn’t fathom the full import of? On the other hand, if a person is broken enough at this young age to hurt a tiny child so much, can he ever be fixed? Will all the rehab in the world make him ready to rejoin society when he’s 21?
I guess those are the questions of the ages. I’m not sure we’ve ever come to any satisfactory resolutions of these issues; I’m not sure we can. I am sure that I did stupid things when I was 14, and would hate to have to pay for them my whole life. And I am more sure than anything that I want my daughters and son to be safe.
I guess we’ll have to see what they decide to do in Tennessee.
Image from sodahead.com
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Tags: adult, aggravated assault, child, consequencespsychologists, counseling, courts, crime, education, juvenile rehabilitation, law, medical care, mentorship, prison, rape, rehabilitation, Tennessee, tried as an adult
