Legal Questions Arising from Inclusion of Young Children in Delinquency Jurisdiction

Children in North Carolina can be tried as respondents in delinquency proceedings for their actions beginning at age 6. The inclusion of young children in delinquency jurisdiction, some of whom may be young enough to remain staunch believers in Santa and to eagerly await a visit from the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny, raises significant legal questions in light of their developmental maturity. Those questions include: whether the infancy defense should play a role in delinquency proceedings? whether the capacity standard used in delinquency proceedings should explicitly account for developmental immaturity? at what point do children develop the skills necessary to function as a competent respondent? A new Juvenile Law Bulletin, Including Young Children in Delinquency Jurisdiction: Issues of Infancy and Capacity, is now available and discusses these issues in-depth. This blog provides some highlights of the bulletin. Imagine that there are three children who each engage in the same behavior—they begin to curse out loud while taking a test in their classroom at school. Each child needs to be escorted from the classroom by the teacher and continues to argue loudly and curse at the teacher as they are walked to the principal’s office. Each child is charged with disorderly conduct by disrupting students. The first child is a 17-year-old senior in high school, the second is a 12-year-old seventh grader, and the third is a 6-year-old first grader. Is each child equally culpable for their offense? Should the age of the child play a role in determining that [...]