The Age of Culpability.

The Age of Culpability argument is founded on the principle that a child's brain does not develop to maturity until later in the teenage years all the way up to the age of 25. The Legal argument is that children under the age of 18 are less "culpable" than those that are over the age of 18.

This legal argument overlaps the Defence of Infancy law which states that no child under 7 can be help liable for a crime. Most states have that age between 11-14 and some even as high as 18.

When you add the two together, you get an idea as follows:

-Children are less and less culpable the younger they are from the age of 18

-Children under the age of 7 are exempt from prosecution-Children who commit crimes between the age of 7 and 18, need to have their age at the time of the crime taken into consideration

-Children who commit crimes between the age of 7 and 18 should have greater care taken for their understanding and rehabilitation for their actions

-The Judicial System, mainly the Juvenile Courts, is set up to protect the children from the sentences of the Adult Courts


When you take all of these things into consideration, the responsibility of the Courts is a grave one indeed. To protect our children, even from themselves. To hand out justice to those that need it, and leniency to those that deserve it.

Unfortunately, this doesn't happen in this day and age anymore...