[monster]

exactly. The poster inferred that if there were plans/thought, then the perps must be acting as adults. But kids do plan and think about things, and they sometimes are extremely illogical and do not have the ability to consider all the possible consequences of their actions, and this is most likely a result of their brains not yet being fully matured.

For example, you might get a toddler wedging the freezer door open because the ice cream was lonely. You treat the "crime" of ruined food differently than you would if it were an older child, and with the older child there might well be a differnce in the consequences depending on whether they were being malicious, careless or stoned. if it were an adult, their reasoning would probably have little impact on the consequences.

That doesn't mean it's easy to differentiate at what level these kids were processing their thoughts, and that's why there is an age limit to differentiate between juveniles and adults. There never will be an easy answer.