Should Children be arrested for hitting adults?

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Boston police have charged a 10-year-old girl with kicking a woman who had accidentally bumped her at a discount department store. In my opinion it is about time. How often have you seen unruly kids that are just out causing trouble and then they say hey you can't touch me I'm a child you'll get arrested. Well now the tables are turned.

Witnesses told police that the girls knocked the victim to the floor "where she was being hit, her hair was being ripped out, and her pants were taken off." The 10-year-old girl was allegedly particularly brutal, kicking the woman in the head and stomach as the victim's clothes were being torn off and she was punched in the face by the other girls.

The other girls were not arrested, but police will seek criminal complaints against them from a court clerk, police said.

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Sounds like assault to me, Linkat. What would have happened though if the victim was another child? Do you think they would have charged the girl(s) anyway?

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I think that the girls should get a record (one that goes away once they hit 18 provided each stays outta trouble), they should have to apologize to the woman they beat and the parents should have to pay for damages (any doctor bills and what not).

There is no excuse for this. But those children learned that somewhere and those responsible (parents) should also be held accountable.

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Assault is assault. Why not arrest her?

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What are they going to do once they arrest her? They can't hold her in a cell with adults. In fact, I don't think they can't do anything at all without legal guardian present.

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Bella Dea wrote:

What are they going to do once they arrest her? They can't hold her in a cell with adults. In fact, I don't think they can't do anything at all without legal guardian present.

Actually they have separate holding cells for kids. At least I learned something from attending my daughter's field trip. The tour included viewing the holding cells for minors.

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Linkat wrote:

Bella Dea wrote:
What are they going to do once they arrest her? They can't hold her in a cell with adults. In fact, I don't think they can't do anything at all without legal guardian present.

Actually they have separate holding cells for kids. At least I learned something from attending my daughter's field trip. The tour included viewing the holding cells for minors.

So they can hold a minor without a guardian present?

Can they do anything else? Like question? Or book?

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I agree with fishin' that an asault is an assault. I would suspect that a ten year old girl who severely batters someone for an extremely minor provocation needs more than jail time. I am glad that the child was caught. I hope that the court orders some therapy and/or anger management her.

If this kid does what was reported at 10, can you imagine what she would be capable of when she is full grown. Maybe (hopefully) this problem has been caught in the bud, where there mighe be time to "fix" the child.

As far as other cases go, the law really needs to handle things on a case by case basis.

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Bella Dea wrote:

I think that the girls should get a record (one that goes away once they hit 18 provided each stays outta trouble), they should have to apologize to the woman they beat and the parents should have to pay for damages (any doctor bills and what not).

There is no excuse for this. But those children learned that somewhere and those responsible (parents) should also be held accountable.

I don't think this goes far enough.

So you have a record until your 18, then it goes away? The kid knows it's not going to show up once she's an "adult", so what does she care?

Maybe that record before you're 18 should entail limitatons on where this kid can go without the supervision of a parent. Like a discount department store, mall, movie theater, fast food restaurant, music stores. That'll show her her actions have consequences. As far as I'm concerned she should wear one of those ankle bracelets that'll go off if she attempts to go into any of those places, unless the parent has called ahead to let them know she's going to be taken by them.

Have the parents pay? ****, let the little darling work it off. Since she's not going to be hanging around malls anytime soon. Let her be assigned a job for as many hours a week as she would have been screwing around with her friends.

If while working she's reported for having an attitude, or isn't giving her all, further privileges will be taken away, like phone or TV use, for a period of no less than 6 months. That'll straightened her shitty attitude out.

Apologize to the woman? Yeah like that'll be a sincere apology. Rolling Eyes

Part of her work program can be doing work directly for the woman or her family.

This should go on 7 days a week with no interruption until she turns 18. On the days she's not working, her school work, which she'll have to maintain at a certain level, will keep her busy. If she doesn't make the grade, more privileges will be taken away so she'll have that extra time to study.

She'll have all of her time occupied between school and work, and won't have time for more trouble.

Now THAT's learning accountability.

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Bella Dea wrote:

Linkat wrote:
Bella Dea wrote:
What are they going to do once they arrest her? They can't hold her in a cell with adults. In fact, I don't think they can't do anything at all without legal guardian present.

Actually they have separate holding cells for kids. At least I learned something from attending my daughter's field trip. The tour included viewing the holding cells for minors.

So they can hold a minor without a guardian present?

Can they do anything else? Like question? Or book?

I believe they can hold while they are calling a parent or guardian. Not sure to what extent they can question though.

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It looks like Mass. law prohibits an assault charge on a minor to be transferred to adult court.

Quote:

Transfer hearings
Cases that involve the threat or infliction of serious bodily harm frequently result in the commonwealth moving for a transfer hearing. This hearing is an attempt to transfer the cases from Juvenile Court jurisdiction to the adult court for trial and sentencing.
To be eligible for transfer a child must be between the ages of 14 and 17 and

a)is committed to DYS and is charged with what would be a felony if the child were and adult
or
b)charged with an offense which threatens or results in the infliction of serious bodily harm.
To justify a transfer to the adult court, the commonwealth must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the juvenile is presents a significant danger to the public and is not amenable to rehabilitation.
As a result of statutory revisions on Dec. 5, 1990 and Dec. 31, 1991 the Legislature has created separate treatment for enumerated offenses, including homicide. In these cases, transfer hearings are mandatory. There is also a mandatory presumption of non-amenability to rehabilitation, although this may be rebutted by the defendant. In addition, the burden of proof required to sustain transfer in these cases has been reduced to preponderance of evidence.
The list of mandatory transfer hearing offenses is as follows:

* first and second degree murder
* manslaughter
* rape
* kidnapping
* armed burglary
* armed assault with intent to rob or murder.

Source

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The issue I see is that often times these kids have the impression they can hit adults and because they are kids they can't get in trouble for it, but adults cannot hit them because then it is assault. I have actually heard kids say this. But as we can see kids can be just as dangerous.

I am not saying that we need to lock these kids up, but there needs to be repercussions for their actions. It should be severe enough too so this dangerous behavior is not repeated.

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I misread that link. They CAN actually request a transfer hearing in the case of assault, but it's not mandatory.

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Chai wrote:

I don't think this goes far enough.

So you have a record until your 18, then it goes away? The kid knows it's not going to show up once she's an "adult", so what does she care?

Maybe that record before you're 18 should entail limitatons on where this kid can go without the supervision of a parent. Like a discount department store, mall, movie theater, fast food restaurant, music stores. That'll show her her actions have consequences. As far as I'm concerned she should wear one of those ankle bracelets that'll go off if she attempts to go into any of those places, unless the parent has called ahead to let them know she's going to be taken by them.

For a relativly good kid, the fear of having it put on a permanent record is enough. For a bad kid, they get the permanant record. You're saying a kid who makes one mistake should pay for the rest of their life?

This is pretty standard in minors cases. A lot of people understand that one mistake doesn't make you a bad person.

Chai wrote:

Have the parents pay? ****, let the little darling work it off. Since she's not going to be hanging around malls anytime soon. Let her be assigned a job for as many hours a week as she would have been screwing around with her friends.

She's 10. She can't get a job.

Chai wrote:

If while working she's reported for having an attitude, or isn't giving her all, further privileges will be taken away, like phone or TV use, for a period of no less than 6 months. That'll straightened her shitty attitude out.

Parents job, not the state.

Chai wrote:

Apologize to the woman? Yeah like that'll be a sincere apology.
Part of her work program can be doing work directly for the woman or her family.

She's 10. She can't work.

Chai wrote:

This should go on 7 days a week with no interruption until she turns 18. On the days she's not working, her school work, which she'll have to maintain at a certain level, will keep her busy. If she doesn't make the grade, more privileges will be taken away so she'll have that extra time to study.

Again, she's 10 and she can't work. And the rest is the parents responsibility not the states.

Chai wrote:

She'll have all of her time occupied between school and work, and won't have time for more trouble.

Now THAT's learning accountability.

Or it's learning that making a mistake can never be forgiven. And costing us taxpayers a lot in probation officers and other legel bs over something that might not need such a step.

Maybe she's a bad seed. Maybe she'll end up doing all sorts of bad things as she gets older. Or maybe she made a really shitty mistake because of the friends she has and the way her parents don't raise her (letting a 10 year old out and about alone?)

Not all kids who do stupid things are bad people. They just make really bad decisions.

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And for the record, I was assaulted by minors so I know what this woman feels like and what she's going through.

I was shot at close range (5-10 feet) from a moving vehicle with a paint ball gun that was jacked up to more than twice the force of a paintball gun they allow in a "game". The officer who handled my case told me flat out that had the ball not burst, it would have broken the skin and had I not had long sleeves on and had the ball hit my arm squarely, it probably would have broken my arm. Had it been 1/2 inch to the left, it could have stopped my heart when it hit me in the chest. It wasn't your ordinary paint ball gun.

As it was, the paintball merely grazed the inside of my upper arm, between my arm and my chest. And just with this grazing, I ended up with a softball sized lump on the underside of my arm and bruising that lasted for months. I had no feeling in my hand or fingers for a week. I was unable to wear the sleeve of my shirt down because the touch of the fabric was that painful. I couldn't write. I couldn't sleep on it. I pretty much couldn't use that arm for a while. I had temporary nerve damage that felt real great when it started to heal.

Yes, I pressed charges. There were 3 of them and they were just screwing around one night thinking it would be fun to shoot people with this paint ball gun. Pretty f'ing stupid huh? But because these kids had no previous record, I allowed them the probation period with the option of destroying their records when they hit 18 if they didn't get in any more trouble.

Was I stupid for doing so? I don't think so. Have they gotten in more trouble? Perhaps, and now they are paying for it I am sure. But if not, I have saved them a lifetime of a flawed record over being stupid one night.

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Here's a link to the Story

I'm still reading...

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Also for the record, I think that each crime has to be evaluated individually.

Slashing someone's face with a knife is worse to me than kicking them.

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Bella - I said that UNTIL she's 18 all these limitations should be put on her.

Once she's 18 she won't have it on her permanent record, BUT, before that, yes, for 10 whole years of her life, she needs to understand on a daily basis that what she did was a criminal act. She's getting off easy by being allowed to stay at home and not put into juvie, and by have a big amount of structure in her life that won't provide much time for her to make another "mistake"

I'm not saying make her life a living hell for 8 years, but what do you think she's going to learn about consequences by having a bogus record until she's 18?

I'm not advocating slave labor, rather that she go to school and earn acceptable grades, after school either be working (yes, working) or be studying for her school work.

She broke the law and injured another person. The law should in this case say this child should be performing some type of work. Work is not an evil word. She can be working doing something actually enjoyable to her you know. That will instill in her the pleasure of getting a job well done, and again, will in a positive way show the consequences of her efforts.

Her mistake will be forgiven the day she turns 18. By that time, with good grades, structure, experience at goal setting and seeing the good results of work, she will be a happier productive person.

In addition, her 10 year old friends will think twice about pulling a stunt like that when they see someone meant business, and has their friend to occupied to roam around with them.

You make bad decisions, you make up for it.

sorry, but that's bullshit a 10 year old can't work. 10 year old all over a mowing a lawn, sweeping the kitchen, learning to sew and embroider, planting flowers and a million other things. Not exactly hard labor.

I also don't mean this kid is to be working 18 hour days. She's supervised in school, works until dinner, studies, go to bed. On weekends she accompanied by parents to any of the places she's not allow to go by herself. A friend can also come.

She has shown she is not trustworthy at this time, and needs to realize her decisions and no one elses put her in this place.

When she turns 18, it's off her record. If done correctly, she's be more mature than other 18 years olds, have a better work ethic, and will have received better grades in school.

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I don't believe children should be arrested. I do, however, believe that all of them, at age 13, should be put in "work camps," where they'd stay until they are of legal age to work and be a productive member of society.

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Well, what you are saying is sort of what I've been saying.

A childs record get exponged if and only if, they stay out of trouble. You so much as fart the wrong way and the judge can make it permanent.

Community service isn't a bad idea but if this kid is a bad seed, community service isn't going to keep her from doing wrong either. She won't care either way.

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Should Children be arrested for hitting adults?

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