Twelve instead of seven years: the discussion of the minimum age for delinquent children in New York

The Video of a police camera from Rochester in upstate New York at the end of January caused a sensation: the attempt to bring a nine-year-old runaway home, had

Twelve instead of seven years: the discussion of the minimum age for delinquent children in New York

The Video of a police camera from Rochester in upstate New York at the end of January caused a sensation: the attempt to bring a nine-year-old runaway home, had officials from the brought girl in handcuffs and then, as it was sitting in the patrol car with pepper spray, sprayed. The recording has fueled the debate about police violence. In the state of New York, she also claims louder, the minimum age for law enforcement to reset up.

allow The laws of the Empire State to detain children after the seventh birthday, and to accuse. So New York is among the States with the lowest minimum age for law enforcement. Only North Carolina, where six-year-old arrested may be, has an even lower "minimum age".

After the fall of the nine-year-old in Rochester, the debate on the prosecution of children has been achieved with the indictment of a seven-year-old is a further highlight. In the last week, the Prosecutor's office accused the boy of Brasher Falls, North of New York to have at Thanksgiving at the end of November, a previously anonymous victim raped.

"I don't assume that a child in the age even know what it does. A seven-year-old rape charge is absurd,“ said Anthony Martone, a lawyer for juvenile justice, the television station WWNY. The prosecution must prove that the Boy had committed the crime. "At least in my eyes it should be impossible." Details of the alleged Assault, the police were not known for the time being.

Only after the twelfth birthday?

Since years, the lawyers of the state of New York, are calling for children only after the twelfth birthday before the court. In order to follow California and Massachusetts. Activists also pointed to a correlation between skin color and law enforcement. The organization calculated Legal Aid Society, were arrested in the city of New York in the years 2016 to 2019, a total of 250 children younger than twelve years.

Date Of Update: 02 April 2021, 21:19