Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed an increasing trend in the United States that involves children being prosecuted in adult criminal courts. This trend has been attributed to an increase in serious crimes committed by children of young age. In the past decade the United Kingdom has also begun to prosecute children who commit serious crimes in adult criminal courts. In V v. United Kingdom' and In re Abraham' the United Kingdom and State of Michigan, respectively, tried children of ages ten and eleven for murder in adult criminal courts. In the case of V, the children were ten years of age at the time the crime was committed, and in Abraham the child being tried was eleven years old at the time of the crime.' Abraham and V signify an alarming shift in juvenile criminal proceedings in which children, regardless of their age and mental competency, are being tried as adults in cases where the crime is sufficiently serious that public outrage and discussion are sparked. The current juvenile system was established to protect the welfare of children, and this movement in the direction of trying children as adults must be reversed in order to preserve the legitimacy of the system.

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