This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Abinanti Seeks to Raise Age of Adult Criminal Responsibility

Today the Assembly Codes Committee conducted a hearing in Manhattan to examine the age of adult criminal responsibility in New York and the effects of treating individuals as young as sixteen as adults in the criminal justice system.

Today’s hearing conclusively proved we should raise the age of criminal responsibility in New York from 16 to 18.

1. New York and North Carolina are the only states that treat youth defendants as adults.

2. Adolescent development studies show kids’ brains are not sufficiently developed to make criminal decisions but have an immense capacity for change. Kids will become what we treat them to be. Treat them as adult criminals and they will become adult criminals.

3. Putting kids in jail with hardened adult criminals is child abuse.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?