Policy
The main topic of focus is the issues with legal age in the state of New York. In the U.S, the common law age of culpability is established by state laws (Suherland, 2016). The minimum age of legal responsibility is set within the state levels in the country. In the country, different states have set ages within which young individuals are identified as having legal responsibility which would theoretically allow children to receive sentences and penalties at any age. There have been several debates on what the legal age of culpability should be. In the Roper v. Simmons case, the question that established was whether executing minors would violate the prohibition unusual punishment that exists in eighth amendment and is applied through incorporating the fourteenth amendment (Benekos et al., 2019). The rule, in this case, was that many states had made a rejection of imposing death penalties on juvenile offenders below the 18 years old with the Supreme Court of the United States holding that the eighth amendment requires this.
Statute
New York's 'Raise the Age' (RTA) legislation shifted the age under which children may be receive prosecution as an adult to 18 years of age in the state’s criminal court ("Raise the Age", 2020). Before the RTA, New York acted as one of the two remaining states to identify 16-year-olds as having legal responsibility. On 1 st October 2019, the age of legal culpability was shifted to 18 years of age ("Raise the Age", 2020). Findings from many research studies have shown that the prosecution and placement of children with the adult criminal justice system do not work (Cauffman et al., 2016). Based on this statute, those that are within the ages of 16 years and 17 years with misdemeanors under the penal law are viewed as juvenile delinquents, and their cases are held within the family court ("Raise the Age", 2020). On the other hand, 16 and 17-year-olds found with misdemeanors within the vehicle and traffic law are identified as adults, and their case will be conducted in the local criminal court.
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Sixteen and seventeen-year-olds with felony charges are viewed as adolescent offenders (AO), and their cases begin in the Youth Part of the Supreme or County Court ("Raise the Age", 2020). RTA created a new classification for individuals within the same range who were charged with felonies. They are referred to as Adolescent Offenders (AO). Raise the Age holds a requirement for the police to make a notification to parents and a legalized guardian when juvenile offenders or adolescent offenders are under arrest. The questioning of children must be conducted in appropriate locations and have a limitation of a reasonable amount of time. Parents that are there at the time the child is being questioned must also be provided with a notice of rights.
The RTA legislation also has a sealing section which increases the possibility for some individuals that have been crime-free for a decade to make applications to seal up to two of their criminal convictions ("Raise the Age", 2020). However, sex offences, violent felonies and other serious felonies do not hold eligibility for sealing. The legislation also ensures that juvenile offenders have the appropriate services and housing. AOs that are detailed within the period of a criminal case has to go to specialized secure juvenile detention facilities for older youth. Those that are detained are expected to go to juvenile detention facilities for the reception of children.
Legislative History
State lawmakers in New York agreed to raise the age at which those suspected of crimes can be charged as adults. This acted as a part of the agreement on the state’s 150-billion-dollar budget. At the time, New York was one of the two states in the country that charged 17 year-olds accused of crimes and adults. This was due to criticism by opponents of the law that it would let teenagers accused of serious crimes off the hook. Members of the State Assembly had brought the 'Raise the Age' legislation in Albany for about 12 years before it was finally agreed on. In October 2018, under a law signed by Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, the legal age of culpability was raised to 17 years old ("Raise the Age", 2020). Under this law, 16-year-olds would no longer be charged with a crime. A year later, in 2019, 17 years olds would no longer be prosecuted as adults with the decision being left to the judge in felony cases ("Raise the Age", 2020).
The main criminological theory that was applied in this statute is the retribution theory. Retribution means providing offenders with the punishment that they deserve (White, 2017). Those that stick to this idea have the belief that the punishment should fit the offence. The idea is referred to as the doctrine of proportionality and was used to make a description of deserved punishment that was proportional to the crime conducted (White, 2017). In this way, this would mean that minorities would receive legal responsibility that matches their cognitive development and actual age. In this case, the youth would be tried as young individuals and not as adults. Based on this theory, the reality of placing a 17-year-old in the same facility as hardened adult criminals would be cruel.
Position
I believe that the Raise the Age (RTA) policy is entirely appropriate and was a need aspect of the justice system. Under current law, minors cannot vote, purchase lottery tickets or open checking accounts. In many ways, 17 year-olds are viewed as children in a large number of ways. However, despite this, the state of New York automatically prosecuted 17-year-olds as adults. This has resulted in devastating effects as they adversely impact public safety and enhance the burden of taxpayers. While the New York justice system considered 17-year-olds as adults, there are several aspects of cognitive development that prove they are not adults. At the age, the frontal cortex, which is the part of the brain whose functions is reasoning and decision making, has not undergone full maturity (Caufmann et al., 2016). This is why individuals at this age are more susceptible to behaving impulsively.
Moreover, as teenagers grow older, the tendency to be irrational, aggressive and reckless disappears slowly. This shows that from a scientific view, teenagers are more of children as opposed to being adults. In this way, they lack a level of culpability. This means that when provided with the appropriate rehabilitative environment, a greater number of children with naturally extend from delinquent behaviours. This provides a minimal logical base for sentencing them to the environment of an adult prison. In several states, juvenile records are sealed when the individual reaches the age of majority. However, before the legislation, youths in New York that were tried in the adult system did not enjoy similar benefits. Instead, they were saddles with permanent adult criminal records, which had a negative effect on them for the rest of their lives.
An example of this is that criminal records can bar individuals from the acquisition of an occupational license or from attaining federal student loans and grants. In this way, these youths were barred from being able to afford the higher education services that were already costly. Even worse, employers have a lower likelihood to hire individuals with a criminal record. This is because about 96% of employers carry out some type of background check and those without criminal records have a greater likelihood to receive a call back for an interview (Sutherland, 2016). When combined, these factors mean that a lot of individuals face extensive struggles for mistakes that they made as minors. This may encourage them to turn to crime as a way of financially supporting themselves as adults.
A large number of crimes that are carried out by those who are below the age of 18 are nonviolent offences. However, when some adults undergo conviction as adults, they usually go adult correctional facilities. This acts as a poor technique for the supervision of youth due to the receipt of a high degree of physical and sexual abuse that they receive in these facilities (Sutherland, 2016). Youth in adult facilities also regularly land in solitary confinement which can result in excessive psychological stress.
Lastly, while the New York State has its budget, raising the age of legal culpability promises to present cost savings. Several states have found that raising the age may entail reallocating funds. However, several states have identified that raising the age of legal culpability resulted in considerable savings for the state overall. Hence, the RTA presents several benefits not only for the youth in New York State but also for the state's budget and the level of crime. In this way, the new legislation acts as a beneficial addition to the New York Criminal Justice System.
Conclusion
While a majority of the crimes that minors commit are not violent, being convicted as adults can have significant effects on its youth. Some of these effects mean a greater degree of crime, physical and psychological trauma as well as an increased burden on taxpayers. New York's RTA legislation, which was implemented in 2019, involved the age of legal culpability from 17 years to 18 years. This legislation is expected to have considerable positive impacts on the criminal justice system and the youth within the state.
References
Benekos, P. J., & Merlo, A. V. (2019). A decade of change: Roper v. Simmons, defending childhood, and juvenile justice policy. Criminal Justice Policy Review , 30 (1), 102-127.
Cauffman, E., Donley, S., & Thomas, A. (2017). Raising the Age. Criminology & Pub. Pol'y , 16 , 73.
Raise the Age . Welcome to the State of New York. (2020). Retrieved 22 May 2020, from https://www.ny.gov/programs/raise-age-0 .
Sutherland, E. E. (2016). Raising the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility in Scotland: Law Reform at Last. N. Ir. Legal Q. , 67 , 387.
White, R. (2017). Retribution.
