Should a 7 Year-Old Be Charged With Rape? – IOTW Report

Should a 7 Year-Old Be Charged With Rape?

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In New York state, children as young as 7 can be arrested and charged as juvenile delinquents in family court. But is that age too young? It’s a question being asked in the state, one that was amplified by the March 23 arrest of a 7-year-old in Brasher Falls, NY, on a charge of third-degree rape, reports WWNY. Virtually no additional details of the case are known due to privacy regulations (the New York Post reports the incident allegedly happened on Thanksgiving), but the New York Times uses it as a springboard for examining whether said arrest should have happened at all. According to some judges, lawyers, and juvenile justice experts they spoke to, no—they say as his age, it would be better for social service agencies to step in, which does occur in hundreds of cases each year. In 2019, New York’s family courts heard 121 cases involving children 12 and under.

Dawne Mitchell, head of the Legal Aid Society’s juvenile rights practice, says that’s because children of that age aren’t cognitively capable of understanding the consequences that follow their actions, and that being put in handcuffs and taken to court exacts a psychological toll that can be traumatic and set them on a path toward recidivism. And a Queens attorney suggested to the Post that the case was as pointless as it is “absurd”: “They’d have to prove he actually physically committed this act, which to me it almost seems to be an impossibility.” 

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18 Comments on Should a 7 Year-Old Be Charged With Rape?

  1. Somewhere around 7-8 years old has traditionally been the lowest age to criminally charge a juvenile. The argument is generally, are they old enough to know what did was wrong? Depends a lot on the totality of the circumstances.

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  2. “…”They’d have to prove he actually physically committed this act, which to me it almost seems to be an impossibility.”…”

    I think the point is, had he even reached puberty to where he could achieve an erection in order to commit the act. That’s not to say that he didn’t assault in a sexual way, but rape her? IDK.

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  3. @ 7 I was lucky to still be alive.

    When I was four years old, and this is slightly before I had a Buick run over my ass, I took a hammer to a .22 rimfire cartridge. It went off, and scared the hell out of me. Bullets make a buzzing sound. It’s a very distinctive sound. You hear that, you’re being shot at.

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  4. He was probably just doing his liberal homework for sex ed class!

    Liberals would love it to be a zoom presentation.

    Oh wait, is the kid’s last name Biden? “NOTHING TO SEE HERE”.

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  5. So a child presumably a female cannot be raped, molested, sexually assaulted by a male who happens to present with a wet noodle?
    I was under the impression that there were many granddad types out there whom I would suspect support corporal punishment. The juvenile justice system was to point youngsters who did not have a strong set of right and wrong sink in at home get a scared straight experience. If junior jail is what is called for, so be it.

  6. being a person that identifies as heterosexual male (or male lesbian, if it make you more comfortable), I can clearly remember sprouting my first chubby at about age 11. (what can I say? … it was a memorable time)
    just saying that having a turgid member at age 7 is a bit of a leap for me … not saying that it isn’t possible … it’s just a bit … advanced, imo

    btw, all this crap started when we did away w/ corporal punishment
    a technique that worked for millennia …

    … and the Gods of the Copybook Headings with Terror and Slaughter return” ~ Kipling

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  7. Fred,
    Two friends of mine took a few 22 shells to school and were setting them off with rocks at the back of the playground in a rural district where we lived. They were found out and given a Stern lecture by the principal.
    Many years later they both owned their own business and have been good law abiding citizens.

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