Underage Criminals

[Shadowhunter]

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What are your thoughts on juveniles breaking the law? Are these matters being handled appropriately?

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• The primary school student that stole a car and went joyriding, damaging two cars, was arrested and charged in accordance with the law in T&T, though we know his family will really be the ones bearing expenses and taking responsibility for court appearances and rehabilitation etc, not him.

• The Duggars have hidden the sexual molestation of minors (including their own children) by their own son while he was underage. No charges were pressed at the time of the incident, nor are they being pressed to date. The most common excuse from them is that he was a minor and it was long ago.

• There are countless reports of toddlers and small children worldwide finding guns and shooting, in some cases, even killing, others.

• Many people still believe that the young boys who were responsible for kidnapping, molesting, abusing, and sodomizing 7 year old Sean Luke many years ago got off too easy because of their ages.

• As long as a rapist or molester is underage, their names are withheld from the media and the public due to the sensitivity of the matter of their being a child, regardless of the age of the person they are accused of raping, molesting etc.

At what age should a person be held accountable for committing a crime? How should these crimes be brought to justice when the perpetrator is a child under the age of 18? What about cases of peer pressure or families influencing youths and desensitizing them to crimes being illegal and illicit?

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[nirtime]

Imo this starts very young and depending on the situation a lot of parents have very little positively to do with their children. Child then gets wrapped up in deviance and crime and its all down hill from there. I don't think it is a bad idea to charge the parents for the wrong doing of the child because realistically a child is supposed to be taken care off and monitored by the parents.

Doh even tell a youth man he doing stupidness, he done ready to cuss you off and tell you who is your maker. Its even worse in primary schools these days, teachers have no power over the students and the students do what they want, how they want, when they want. Sometimes the parents support this dotish behaviour and want to also speech off the teacher. So when these type of things are allowed to continue we will continue to live with senseless underaged crime and these very children will grow up to terrorize and murder as adults or even before leaving adolescence.

my $2 worth.

 

[Shadowhunter]

I think a lot of parents honestly do not care. Some are of the "do as I say, not as I do" mentality as well. With regards to the car thief, it is a common "fun" thing for parents to let their children sit on their lap and drive, or put them in the driver's seat alone and let them fiddle with keys and steering etc. At that point, it is funny and cute. When they start the car and damage it, is licks for plenty of them, why they do that for? Very hypocritical IMO. Most Trini parents might seek to beat the child for what he did without addressing the real matter at hand. Ditto for "oh oh take a picture! Check him he taking he first drink!" "come hit him a lash, leh me see yuh, hit him hard!" "come hug she up and kiss she. Look she running, go grab she, hold she down nah man and kiss she!" and similar examples encouraged and LOL'd at.

It seems preposterous to charge a toddler for shooting a gun, but if a few years pass we through them in juvie or a similar rehabilitation center to pay for their crimes. I think different children at different ages have different levels of understanding of things and should not be pooled together for punishment. I would not throw an underage rapist/murderer in the same rehab facility or community service etc as a shoplifter, car thief, or a child that misfired a weapon. It's very tricky I think.