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I worked in adolescent psych for many many years and I saw a lot, especially since part of that time was working in the inner city of Detroit. I worked with a 13 year old girl who was brought in after being stopped by the police because she had a gun... she was heading to a guy's house to avenge her brother's gang related death. She grew up in that environment and truly believed that was the correct response. She was in our hospital for 6 months and made a huge turn around in her attitude and her stage of moral reasoning increased by two levels. I've also worked with kids who were sociopaths and nothing was going to change that. I worked with one young man (the scariest ever) who was clearly on a path toward severe rape/torture of women (he started with cutting up Play Boys, then started torturing his sister's Barbie dolls and then started stealing undergarments of mom and sister and cutting those up, so he was progressing). Logically, this kid should have been locked up for a long long time with very intensive rehab, but the services weren't available and you can't lock someone up for a crime they haven't committed yet. He even admitted that he had fantasies of being the lead singer in a band and that he would slit women's throats as they tried to come up on stage during live concerts. He was one sick kid.
All of that said, we do have rules and limitations on what children can do in this society because of their inability to make good decisions (voting, driving, alcohol use, having sex, etc). Kids ARE kids and should not be treated exactly like adults. I agree with honeychile that there needs to be a third tier. Tried as juveniles, in special jails/prisons for extremely violent juveniles, with highly intense psychological rehab, following with evaluations at 18 to determine whether they should remain incarcerated (moving to adult prison then) or in treatment or whether they have been rehabilitated.
Nobody will pay for it though.
Dee
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