But we can not let the nature of the offense, no matter how disturbing, overshadow what we know about the inherent differences between children and adults. There are ways to both protect the community and hold juvenile offenders responsible, while at the same time recognizing that children who commit adult crimes are, nevertheless, still children. Laurence Steinberg, is the Director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice and the Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at Temple University. Experts, advocates and commentators rushed to dissect and unravel this latest story of violence, seeking rational explanations for the murder of yet another child. But this is not a murder story.
Murder is a pre-meditated act done with the specific intent to take a human life.
Children of six do not have the intellectual, emotional or cognitive ability to premeditate and plan such an act of violence, nor do they have the mental capacity necessary to even understand the consequences of such an act. Children of six who still believe in the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny and Santa Claus cannot possibly grasp the finality of death. Children of six copy the adults around them, for better or worse, but children of six never cease being simply children. The law recognizes the absurdity of treating a child as young as six as a criminal. Significantly, no prosecutor around the country has yet stepped forward and urged the criminal prosecution of this child who is barely beyond his toddler years.