14yo Rapist; 77yo Victim
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-16659634

So apart from the fact that this is horrible and bizarre and unbelievable.... two years? I would like to see indefinite, release depending on response to counselling etc. Detained for 'public safety" no kidding! And no, on this one, I don't care if "it's not his fault because he's damaged from previous abuse"/whatever. And i don't care if he's a minor. Anyone who can do this IS a danger to society.

here endeth the rant

OK I lied. No, he doesn't need to be killed. He's a child. there's clearly something majorly wrong. Hopefully it can be fixed. But he shouldn't be released until it is.

Not killed, not released. Send him to the colonies.

Killed is acceptable to me. Other options may also suffice.
2 years isn't one of them though.

But Rhianne, it's nice in the colonies. :D

And no, we don't want him either.

I was waiting for the really shocking part of this story, but there isn't one. Why is this news?

He wouldn't last long here.

I have a 14yo (girl). She has friends who are boys. They're still just babies. Tall gangly babies with unreliable voices and bumfluff on their faces... I just can't imagine a 14yo who would do this :(

Fucking terrifying. At every level. What the hell is it like inside that boy's head?

This sort of case is always deeply troubling. he is a child. His brain has not yet fully formed, and in particular that part of the brain which allows us to understand the moral context of our actions, and relate them back to ourselves, as well as the ability to control our impulses.

Maybe this is one of those unfortunate (and dangerous) people for whom that part of the brain never works properly.

He is clearly, at this point a danger to society, and probably also to himself. But two years is a massive amount of time in terms of brain development in adolescents. It is possible that with supervision and counselling he could actually come through this and not be a danger to anyone.

Or, maybe he won't. Either way, at this present time, I don't think he can really be held fully accountable for his actions. Even a really grown-up seeming 14 year old is still in many ways a child. He's a boy.

*shakes head*

Disturbing.

There are stages to development that are often used in assessing a child.
Child criminals usually come in at a very low level, in that they have little or no empathy, little or no control of their emotions, no understanding of societal norms etc. These are rarely a birth defect. They are due to poor parenting skills and the chaotic adult lives they are exposed to.

I'm not being a bleeding heart, but for this child to perpetrate this crime, there would have been abuse in his background. Neglect, emotional abuse and/ or sexual abuse. I honestly believe that people are not born evil (despite my Catholic upbringing) but that parenting can filter a personality towards bad behaviour.

Which us not to say I condone his revolting actions. But I fear that in two years, the child will have had no counselling or rehabilitation, only collaboration with older and more dangerous criminals and will return to the street an even greater danger.

Oedipus?

Has to be mental illness.

Similar case in my area recently. But the punishment was far harsher.

The facts in a nutshell: 13 year old boy was in a juvenile detention center on burglary charges when he beat and strangled his 65 year old teacher to death and then sexually assaulted her (corpse). That was about two years ago. He was 14 when the trial started a month or so ago, and it was determined that he should be tried as an adult. He turned 15 before the trial was completed and he agreed to plead guilty and accept an 85 year sentence. He will serve at least 42.5 years in prison before he can be released on parole. If he behaves himself, he will come out of prison at age 57 in 2054. Otherwise, he could theoretically be in there until age 100.

eta: oh, and almost as an afterthought, the article mentioned that he also pleaded guilty to an unsolved stabbing in his neighborhood, when he would have been 12, after investigators matched the fingerprints on the knife to him.

On the one hand, it's not his fault he got turned into a monster. But on the other, I have serious doubts that he can ever be fixed. Maybe the best option would be to consider this sort of thing a mental illness and require permanent heavy medication at a psych lockup instead... but I don't even think we have medication that can fix this, short of a lobotomy.

Don't you think a very messy and very public removal of their family jewels without anaesthesia could be a deterrent for others like them?

Yeeeeaaaaah....maaaaaybbbeeeee....no.

I don't think mutilating children is the answer :P