Young Felons

I read that Brazil grapples with the problem of violent youth crime, and considers lowering the age at which a juvenile offender can be tried as an adult, from 18 to 16. Some people point out that incarcerating juvenile delinquents in adult institutions will only make matters worse because they will "graduate" into full-blown criminals. Those people call for education and treatment, instead.

The trouble with rehabilitation is that, even if it works -- which is a dubious proposition, at best -- it takes a long time. Meanwhile, in the short run, something effective must be done to prevent these young people from continuing to engage in violent crime. The people who get killed, hurt or maimed by a minor are just as dead, hurt or maimed as they would be by an adult.

I'm in favor of giving youths, as well as adults, all the help they might need to reform, but they have to be kept away from the rest of us, for some time. We have to recognize that, at 16, you pretty much know right from wrong. The idea that these are "children" is nonsense. A nonsense that endangers  society at large.

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