Juvenile Death Penalty

[Lady Sidhe]

Originally posted by mrnoodle

If your kid gets to the point that he or she is able to commit a capital crime, and you were totally clueless about it, you haven't spent enough time with your kids. Hell, if someone's dog kills someone, they face criminal charges, and you want me to believe that your own child's actions are less your responsibility? I just don't buy it.

I see where you're coming from mrnoodle, and it does make sense. However, I know that I, as a kid, used to sneak out at night, and my family was never the wiser about it. I could've been out torching houses (I wasn't) for all they knew, but my sneaking out had nothing to do with how they raised me. It was just something kids do. There were a lot of things in my life that my family knew nothing of (not necessarily bad, just things they didn't know). If I'd gotten in trouble, I don't think that they should've been held responsible.

Parents can't stay awake 24/7, after all. If your kid's sneaking out at night and raping people, how are you supposed to know unless you're watching him as he sleeps? What about these straight-A students who end up being discoverd to be murderers or rapists? Do you think their parents had any idea that their kid, who was doing so well in school, and seemed to be well-adjusted, with lots of friends, had a double life?

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. I'm just pointing out that a child's behavior is not ALWAYS the result of a parent's not being involved. And then again, sometimes the parents themselves are outright criminals....

Working in a mental hospital, I saw plenty of kids whose parents just couldn't control them, no matter what they did. Our ward was the last stop before jail for kids who'd been deemed "incorrigible" by the courts.

Sometimes kids are just bad.