KIDS AND CRIME

January 2000
		Should juveniles who commit serious crimes be treated as adults? Cabrini College criminal justice professor Linda Collier and Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Fox respond to your questions.

Forum introduction Should parents be liable for their children's behavior? Can children in detention be rehabilitated by the age of 21? Should children be given special rehabilitation? Does putting kids in adult prison essentially mean throwing them away? If kids can commit adult crimes, shouldn't they get adult punishment?   Jan. 14, 2000: The youngest person ever convicted of murder receives his sentence. Dec. 16, 1999: A new study examines violence in America. Browse Online NewsHour coverage of youth, the law and education.     Join Together: A Resource site for reducing gun violence The office of Michigan Governor John Engler

Convicted November 16 of shooting a stranger outside a convenience store with a stolen shotgun, Nathaniel Abraham was sentenced 10 years behind bars. Though the sentence is not unusual for second degree murder, the criminal is: Abraham was only 11 when the crime occurred. Abraham was the first minor to be tried under Michigan's Juvenile Justice Law, a statute allowing juveniles to be charged and sentenced as adults. Now 13 years old, Abraham will spend his sentence in juvenile detention. The judge presiding over the trial, Judge Eugene Moore, rejected a motion to delay Abraham's sentence, saying the looming deadline of the boy's release will focus the system on the need for effective rehabilitation. "We can't continue to see incarceration as a long-term solution" Moore said. "The danger is we won't take rehab seriously if we know we can utilize the prison system in the future. To sentence juveniles to adult prison is ignoring the possibility that we are creating more dangerous criminals by housing juveniles with hardened adults." Although Moore said the Juvenile Justice Law is "fundamentally flawed" in its approach to juvenile justice, Michigan Governor John Engler thinks it works as written. "The governor feels when the legislature made this decision, it gave prosecutors and judges the ability to use this power on a case-by-case basis," an Engler spokeswoman said. "He thinks it was a good law and it was put there in order to allow prosecutors and judges to use it as they see fit." Should juveniles who commit serious crimes be treated as adults? Will "get tough on juvenile crime" laws help slow down the rate of violent acts committed by minors? Will this method help to rehabilitate juvenile offenders? Cabrini College criminal justice professor Linda Collier and Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Fox respond to your questions.