I heard on the news a while back that authorities were contemplating whether or not to file criminal charges against the boy—nine or ten years old, i think—who started one of the recent California fires playing with matches. (I dont' know if they ended up filing charges or not. It doesn't matter for the purpose of this entry.) Solid science tells us that kids' incomplete cognitive development keeps them from being able to see the 'larger picture' as adults can; they can't readily view their present actions in the context of far-reaching possible consequences. Did these authorities ever play with matches when they were little? Did they ever do anything stupid as a kid? Did you?
Even if this kid would happen to be an obnoxious little snot, always getting into trouble and never respecting authority—even if he'd been told over and over not to play with matches—his actions are still those of a normal little kid. What about kids who've caused their own homes to burn down by playing with matches? That's the same act this kid committed; a child who starts a house fire, forest fire, or any other accidental fire doesn't have control of how out of control the fire ends up. Should we ferret out every kid in San Diego who's ever played with matches and charge them with criminal recklessness?
I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished. I'm not saying it shouldn't be hefty punishment. But pulling him into the legal system with criminal charges? I'm just asking for a little balance here. A little humanistic realism.
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Perhaps the child shouldn't have any "serious" punishment levied on him legally, but what about the parents?
The parent tried to put out the fire himself from what I heard - i don't know if he then called in authorities or not or if they could even respond or not. Good thoughts Suz.
bob, you mean maybe the parents should face legal punishment? because they didn't call the fire dept when they should have? i'm not too familiar with the rest of the story to be honest. if there are laws for calling authorities when a fire breaks out like that and the parents ignored them, then sure. they should have the reasoning capacity to make the lawful decision there. (which could get us into a whole conversation about charging the mentally ill, retarded, etc. are we really completely responsible for our actions if they're even in part the result of something we can't help--like sub-par intelligence? like a genetic makeup or chemical imbalance that causes the reasoning/guilt/urge suppression parts of our brain to function improperly? law n order svu had a really great episode exploring that issue a few wks back.
I was watching the daily show last night and they showed a bit from Fox News. Fox was claiming that there was evidence that terrorists had started some of the fires as an attack on the US... perhaps we should send the kid to Guantanamo
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