How young is too young to charge a child with murder

[TheDoctor]

NEVER if you killed some one then you should face up to what you have done!!!

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Matthew, you'd only be a sociopath if you then actually strangled someone with the intent to remove an annoyance.

. My husband almost accidentally strangled himself as a kid playing with a noose and had no concept that it'd cause death. Alternatively, children much younger than one would imagine have knowingly commited suicide. That one is usually related to abuse.

 

[JulieNKC]

Quote:
The 5 year old and the toddler were cousins. I don't know how the older child was related.

 

[Ferrret]

Sometimes young children are smarter than anyone gives them credit for.

Back in 2000, a 6 year old boy shot and killed his classmate here in MI. He shot her in a hallway with a few dozen people standing around, then threw the gun in a wastebasket and hid in a bathroom. He admitted to police that he knew what he did was wrong, but the law says children at that age cannot form intent to do such things and cannot be charge with anything.
He had fights with her, he had obvious attitude problems and would spit on people, hit people, curse and make rude gestures. Students interviewed after the incident reported that they had some kind of fight on the playground, he pointed her out and told her he didn't like her.
Many people have no doubt in their minds that he intended to kill her, or at the very least harm her gravely. Children can understand what death is, they can understand what leads to dying. They may not completely understand the long term consequences of killing something or someone, but they do understand that death means you are gone and not coming back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Kayla_Rolland


I don't think this 5 year old girl wanted the toddler dead. I think she just wanted him to be quiet and the only thing she knew would make him quiet at the time was to hold him underwater. How many times have kids held their hands or a pillow over another kids face to make them be quiet? How often do they realize that their friend can't breathe or that their struggling isn't just playing?
There is negligence involved almost always, someone older should have known better. Sadly many parents don't know better and think many of the things they do is alright for their kids. Like the mother who's 13 month old drowned in the bath while she played on Facebook. She knew it was stupid but "...knew what it was like to be told no, she didn’t want her baby to be told no and didn’t want him to be known as a mama’s boy...".

 

[farmerlor]

A five year old does not KNOW anything. I'm sorry but if you look at the volumes and volumes of child development studies children do not have the processing capabilities to understand that something they do is FOREVER. They can be mad and hurt something and just not comprehend that what they've done cannot be undone.
I've fostered children for years and years and we had a child who had been raised by wolves. This kid couldn't even eat like a human. She tried to HANG her brother. She was six at the time, little brother was barely three. The concept of DEAD didn't even occur to her.

 

[Laurajean]

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Do you mean you fostered a child who was literally raised by wolves???

 

[farmerlor]

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Do you mean you fostered a child who was literally raised by wolves???

No, it's a saying where I come from that means the parents just threw food on the floor once a day and hoped everything came out okay. Actually wolves are much better parents than some of the bio parents of the children we fostered.

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:
Do you mean you fostered a child who was literally raised by wolves???

No, it's a saying where I come from that means the parents just threw food on the floor once a day and hoped everything came out okay. Actually wolves are much better parents than some of the bio parents of the children we fostered.

Okay... I was HOPING it was just a saying I hadn't heard, lol, sorry. And sadly, you're probably right that the child may have been better off with actual wolves...

 

[Ferrret]

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If the child was hardly cared for to begin with, where would she have learned the concept of death? If you never learn what death is, why would you be concerned by it?

The volumes of child development studies have been steadily disproven in roughly the past 50 or so years. Children are capable of learning a great deal of things that once were thought to be beyond their mental abilities. No one thought to challenge the minds of children until recently, so no one could really be sure of their ability to comprehend concepts. It has been found that many 'adult' concepts are grasped well by children and that many concepts that adults struggle with very young children have no issue at all dealing with.

 

[farmerlor]

Quote:
If the child was hardly cared for to begin with, where would she have learned the concept of death? If you never learn what death is, why would you be concerned by it?

The volumes of child development studies have been steadily disproven in roughly the past 50 or so years. Children are capable of learning a great deal of things that once were thought to be beyond their mental abilities. No one thought to challenge the minds of children until recently, so no one could really be sure of their ability to comprehend concepts. It has been found that many 'adult' concepts are grasped well by children and that many concepts that adults struggle with very young children have no issue at all dealing with.

I'm sorry but you are wrong. A new study just out shows that even at the age of 21 the brain is still learning to process concepts and govern impulse control.