Lawmakers Looking To Raise Age Of Individuals Tried As An Adult From 16 to 18

In the state of New York, the age of criminal responsibility is 16 years old – the youngest in the nation. According to a report in the New York Times, Democratic lawmakers, including State Senator Diane Savino and other rights advocates are pushing to raise the age of being tried as an adult to 18-years-old.

Assemblyman Karim Camara, who leads the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, is vehemently opposed to the current regulation.

“There’s no excuse for it,” Camara told the Times. “It’s bad policy, it’s bad practice, it’s bad for the children, it’s bad for the community.”

While various organizations and coalitions have tried to make an issue of the low age of criminal responsibility in the past, the Times explained how it has only been in recent years that lawmakers have started to make serious hay out of it:

One such initiative, proposed by New York’s chief judge [Jonathan Lippman] in 2011, seeks to create special courts with specially trained judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers who would work collaboratively to help 16- and 17-year-olds arrested in cases involving nonviolent crimes enter a probation adjustment program. Instead of facing punitive measures in the adult justice system, adolescents would be given access to corrective alternatives like those made available through family courts for children 15 and under.

The proposal has faced opposition from Republicans in the State Senate.

“There is a great deal of concern about moving away from a zero tolerance for violence no matter who exerts that violence,” Republican Senator Michael F. Nozzolio, told the Times. “The victim is still victimized and the damage is still extreme in many cases.”

Nozzolio believes that the measure is unlikely to pass.

Those supporting the measure believe that public safety will not be threatened by treating 16- and 17-year-olds differently, and that studies have proven that adolescent brains operate differently from adult brains. If the measure gets passed it would affect thousands of teenaged New Yorkers, as three-quarters of the 50,000 people aged 16 and 17 arrested each year are detained for misdemeanor offenses.

While some advocates want comprehensive reforms that completely protect all teenagers from being arrested or tried as adults, Savino wants to pursue a more moderate reform like the one proposed by Lippman.

“This is a much heavier lift and it will be harder to get people to support it,” Savino told the Times.