to be convicted of a sex crime?
From FOXNews
Third-Grader Arrested for Sex Crime
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
TAMPA, Fla. — A 9-year-old boy was arrested after he lifted a female classmate's skirt and touched her, authorities said.
The boy, a third-grader at Booker Elementary School, was released to his parents after being booked Monday at the Sarasota County jail on charges of lewd and lascivious molestation.
School principal Gwendolyn Rigell said the boy had been suspended before because of a pattern of "repeated acts that are sexual in nature."
He was accused of touching the girl, who is also 9, as they rode home Friday on a school bus. This week, the boy admitted he had abused her, according to his arrest report.
According to the report, the boy grabbed the girl's hands and held them behind her back in the seat; he then lifted her skirt and touched her, the report says. He also pulled her shirt up around her neck, saying, "Look, she is not wearing a bra," according to the report.
Potential penalties, in the event the boy is found guilty, include outpatient therapy, probation and juvenile commitment, prosecutors said.
"Just because it's a felony, it doesn't mean he's going away," said Rod Haynes, an assistant state attorney. "The younger the child, the less inclined we are to try a commitment program."
What course of action do you think should be taken?
Should the parents be held accountable instead of the child?
Under Florida's 'three strikes law', should the felony carry over into the child's adult life?
After working with law enforcement in the area of bail bonds and bounty hunting, I have seen the worse of the worse of criminals... as well as being incarcerated myself as a juvenile and as an adult, I know firsthand that institutionalizing certain criminal types just doesn't work. In most cases it only serves to make them into 'better' criminals pooling information from other criminals. But also in certain cases therapy doesn't always work either... in this case I think that family therapy would be a venue to be examined as well as a strict probation term.
In most states the parents of a minor child are just as accountable as the child is for the crime and in this case I would expect that they will be held accountable as well... in the order of fines for victim restitution and possible therapy along with the child.
Being a former juvenile felon myself, I lucked out with a kind judge and a little used statute in expunging the felon once the terms of incarceration, probation and restitution were met and upon my 18th birthday. Knowing firsthand that this manner of law worked in not only my case but several others, in prevention of any further felonys as well as less legal trouble in the future, I would find this could work in this case as well.
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