12 votes

Seven-year-old boy charged with rape in New York. Is arresting him the answer?

6 comments

  1. [3]
    Grendel
    Link
    This hits especially close to home for me. I remember a few weeks ago when this story broke it gave me anxiety about my own son, who is now the same age as the boy in the story. While he hasn't...

    This hits especially close to home for me.
    I remember a few weeks ago when this story broke it gave me anxiety about my own son, who is now the same age as the boy in the story. While he hasn't raped anyone, it has recently come out that he has inappropriately touched his classmates. We told the school what had happened and they assured us they would put rules in place and watch him closely so it wouldn't happen again. It happened again less than a week later, totally due to the school not following through with their own safety plan. We had to pull him out of public school and home school him for the remainder of the year.

    Legal action would not provide him any benefit. It wouldn't keep society safer. We are doing everything we can to keep him and others safe. At this point our two sons are hardly in the same room anymore and we don't allow him to be around other kids. It's getting to the point that we worry they aren't able to live together, and our options are limited.

    If our son is to have any hope of recovery, it will take years of intense counseling and intense at home care. Institutionalization - be it prison, juvenile detention, or a residential facility, won't provide him what he needs to heal.

    22 votes
    1. [2]
      Octofox
      Link Parent
      Could this be doing more damage by depriving him of socialising and learning? How old is your son? How do you plan to prepare them for the real world in this environment?

      and we don't allow him to be around other kids

      Could this be doing more damage by depriving him of socialising and learning? How old is your son? How do you plan to prepare them for the real world in this environment?

      6 votes
      1. Grendel
        Link Parent
        He is 7. Right now we are in damage control mode. We plan to integrate him back with other kids his age, but we need to make more progress in counseling first. We have tried to integrate him but...

        He is 7. Right now we are in damage control mode. We plan to integrate him back with other kids his age, but we need to make more progress in counseling first.
        We have tried to integrate him but he just isn't ready yet. Sometimes the sexual behavior starts to show within 15 minutes of playing with other kids, and the longest he can go is an hour.

        5 votes
  2. [3]
    Grzmot
    Link
    How do you even charge a 7-year old, who is in an age well before puberty, with rape? Like, how does that work? On a biological level? I find it strange that this article is even asking this...

    How do you even charge a 7-year old, who is in an age well before puberty, with rape? Like, how does that work? On a biological level?

    I find it strange that this article is even asking this question as if there is some valid discussion to be had. Of course children have no fucking clue what they're doing, they're children. If you put them in jail you're just setting them up to be a life-long customer of the private prison complex in the US.

    17 votes
    1. elcuello
      Link Parent
      I totally agree... Sometimes I wonder if reasonable adults exists in the US.

      I totally agree...

      “What we know now is that the science doesn’t support prosecution of second graders,”

      Still, more than half of American states have no minimum age at all. Of those that do, only North Carolina, at age 6, has a lower minimum than New York.

      Earlier this year in North Carolina, a 6-year-old boy was arrested and taken to court after he picked a tulip while waiting at a bus stop, according to a report in the Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C.

      Sometimes I wonder if reasonable adults exists in the US.

      17 votes
    2. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. Grendel
        Link Parent
        Just to clarify, their sexual behavior (when it has happened) has been inappropriate touching, not full on sex. I wouldn't phrase it as consensual, as I don't believe that children can consent, to...

        Just to clarify, their sexual behavior (when it has happened) has been inappropriate touching, not full on sex. I wouldn't phrase it as consensual, as I don't believe that children can consent, to adults or to one another. Even if it appears consensual it is incredible harmful to both children and needs to be stopped/prevented at all costs.

        Now, at all costs doesn't mean sending them to prison, but sometimes it does mean taking steps to separate them, even if that means they have to live in different places for a time.

        17 votes