Teenagers; they are like aliens! There is a reason. It is quite simple. They are brain damaged, literally.
Canada has laws that a lot of people think wrong. One of the most controversial is the age of a criminal and how they can be tried. In Canada, if you are very young, I think under the age of twelve, one cannot be tried in the court of law. Instead, the Criminal Justice System will look into how you were raised and if culpable will charge the parents, or remove the child into a ward of the state. After twelve the child enters a grey area called Minor. If a child commits a crime when under the age of eighteen, they are tried as a Minor. Being tried as a Minor means that they will receive a less harsh sentence and will receive more help and more intensive rehabilitation for the duration of their incarceration. Additionally, they get a clean record; a chance to start anew in society.
There are some people who resent this "soft" treatment, but studies have shown that children thus treated commit less crimes after they are released. Most keep their records clean. As people of good conscious know, most violent crimes occur when the criminal loses their head and goes too far. I mean, they get angry and suffer poor judgement; rare is the violent crime that is methodically planned out and executed. Sometimes violent crime occurs when they commit other crimes and they panic and this is do to unforeseen events that push people into something they did not plan. My point is most violent crime is not intended. Most violent crime results from a chain of events that starts with a poor call of judgement.
And who cares? If you are victim of a violent crime, or a loved one of a victim of violent crime, one does not care about the reason for the crime; they care that it was done at all. Many people are very incensed about violent crime and the first reaction of many and unfortunately the only reaction of a few, is that they want the criminal to pay for his or her loss of judgement. And that is valid to feel that way. When someone hurts someone else, we would like the former to feel the pain of the latter. If someone dies, the same. That is why, in increasing frequency, children are being tried as adults.
In Canada we no longer have the Death Penalty for Capitol Crimes. They greatest penalty the courts can impose is life in prison. Many families become incensed when they find that a life sentence for a child is only a few years in prison with no criminal record after serving the crime, so they plead with the court to have the child tried as an adult.
What is an adult? What separates a child of twelve to eighteen from someone older? Why do they not want eleven year olds tried as adults too? In the past, they have killed criminal eleven year olds, so why not now? What separates an eleven year old from a Minor?
Actually the answer to the two separation questions is the same thing. Children under twelve have more in common with adults than teenagers, after taking into consideration of their age. That is because Teenagers are aliens.
Okay, that is not true. But what is true is they are growing people. Children become adults be becoming teenagers. Teenagers are always growing, some sooner and some later than others, but it always happens. Every part of their bodies grow bigger. Some parts are changed around significantly. One part that changes significantly is the brain. The judgement center is most affected.
When you are driving through your town or city with nice wide highways and clean traffic free thoroughfares, you can cross your town in no time at all, but when a pipe bursts or a bridge is being retrofitted and you have to take a detour, it takes a little longer. If for some reason, there was construction on every other street and the construction sites kept moving around, it would take you a lot longer to get across town. This is what happens in a teenage mind; the traffic gets through the judgement centers, but it is delayed and often too late to affect actions. And so we get the often heard refrain, "It seemed like a good idea at the time!"
I am not saying that because they have impaired judgement they should be let off from all responsibility; they should be made responsible, but there should be some leniency tho reflect their impaired brains. They are in effect, brain damaged. This is why Canada legal status called Minor. Most of the things teenagers do in the boneheaded category only affect themselves, some even kill themselves, but sometimes they hurt others too. Sometimes they kill others. Sometimes they don't think their actions through to the logical conclusion, due to their impaired judgement. Most of the time nothing bad happens.
Kudos to Quebec, the only province in Canada that has strengthened the rights of Minors in Canada. A big failing grade to the rest for weakening these laws.
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