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I think they need to aggressively pursue the adults involved. However, going to juvie (in Detroit anyway) isn't exactly a picnic. I've heard a lot of horror stories about it. Besides, if they did it my way, they would have a chance of ending up in adult prison also, so they wouldn't be getting away with anything, really.
That type of thing has been going on for years though. At the first children's psych unit I worked (1988-91) we had an 11 year old patient who was a drug runner. They were using kids for this back then because they knew that they would face lesser penalties. To get the kid OUT of the situation (he wasn't comfortable with it, although the $400 a week was nice for his family) the family had to completely relocate and he stayed with various relatives, moving often, so he wouldn't be found. I think when they're paying kids of that age that much money to do their dirty work for them, the kids aren't going to think about long term consequences. They've got to go after the adults. If you hire a hit man to kill someone, they can still charge you with conspiracy to commit murder. When you've got a poor inner city kid whose family doesn't have food, clothes or heat, he's going to go for the money. Those are the types of kids I always saw targeted.
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