Someone posted a story about a young girl who killed a baby. If that girl was mentally ill, shouldn't she be helped rather than prosecuted?
How old is old enough to "know better"?
Can a person learn from her mistakes? Even very serious mistakes? Can a person be "redeemed"?
I believe that there is a possibility that the young girl is indeed disturbed, but that should not be an excuse which removes her from the consequences of her actions. She is in fact old enough to know better, every psychological study of right and wrong supports the idea that she is well past that point in her development. Killing is a simple right or wrong in the given situation. She was not in danger and it was not a question of self-defense. This girl committed a crime knowingly and actively. She may gain redemption but first she must live with the consequences of her actions.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is a small chance the 11 year old girl could have been mentally ill when she killed the infant. However, like Beth said the act of killing is a simple right or wrong. Around age 7 a child's conscience begins to mature enough to know right from wrong and guide their actions. With this being said, the young girl is over 7 years old and so therefore she knowingly committed a crime and deserves whatever punishment follows. She suffocated/killed the infant and I think she needs to face the consequences that go along with the crime.
ReplyDeleteI believe that someone can learn from their mistakes, but I think this young girl should be incarcerated for what she did (serious crime) and that this will help her learn what she did was wrong. I think it is possible for people to be redeemed after committing such a crime, but it will take time.
There is definitely a chance that the girl has some psychological issues. In fact, I do not believe that homicides occur without a psychological problem, unless it is out of self-defense or some other more logical reason. I believe that the girl should be helped as well as prosecuted. She should definitely face the consequences of her actions, but that does not mean she cannot be helped in the process.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Elizabeth in that, as part of NORMAL development, the girl should have "known better." But was her development normal? Do we know her past? Other than the fact that the article said she had a behavior disorder, it said nothing else about her psychological state.
I believe the mother of the 11-year-old should be partially to blame for this. We have to remember that the article said that the mother left the baby in the room with the 11-year-old, knowing that she had a behavior disorder and was not fit to look after the baby.
I think, depending on how everything plays out in the young girl's life from now on, she will be able to learn from her mistakes and learn how to be a more prosocial person. Hopefully she will be able to benefit from counseling, behavior programs, etc. Also, if her family supports her I think she will be able to come a long way.
I definitely agree that the girl should be helped if she was mentally ill. She should be placed in a psychiatric ward where she can get the medical attention she needs. People mature at different rates, but for the most part I think that she should have been old enough to "know better" (know right from wrong).
ReplyDeleteI believe people can learn from their mistakes, but I am not sure if she is mature enough yet for that. She will need quite a bit of time to think about her actions and counseling from professionals. The consequences of what she has done will hopefully help her more than hurt her as she is so young. The whole situation needs to be evaluated more carefully for a verdict to be reached in this case. I do not think we know enough about the story to make a full judgment.
Many people said that the girl should be punished for what she did. I said that. However, she should also be helped if it is possible. I just think that people should be held responsible for their actions. If they weren't in full control of themselves, then the punishment should not be as severe. However, it can be difficult to decide whether a person did something with full knowledge or not. Human beings are not perfect creatures. They lie and cheat, even if it is only a minority that does. When you experience something like that, you begin to doubt the words of other people. Actions speak louder than words, but we do not always know the full scope of the situation. I believe that a person can be redeemed, but that can be a difficult thing to do. It is more than just saying sorry, it must be something that continues for the rest of their life, otherwise nothing actually happened. It is only by living with the consequences and atoning for them that someone can atone for their mistakes. If I did something like that, I do not know how I would be able to atone. The taking of another's life has so many consequences that it is unimaginable. It is not as easy as fixing a broken window.
ReplyDeleteI think that she is mentally ill. She is old enough to know better, however she needs to be evaluated by a doctor. In some mental health disorders the person can't make rational decisions or they don't realize the consequences of the decisions they are making. If she is found to be guilty by reason of insanity and put into a behavioral health unit. This will in no way let her "get away" with the crime she committed, however she will probably be put on medications to stabilize the illness (if she is found to have one). I think that a person can learn from their mistakes, but I think that they will never be "redeemed". She is only a child, so she will have to live with the crime for the rest of her life.
ReplyDeleteDealing with mental illness is a tough situation form a legal stand point. Is it fair to procecute someone due to a disease that they have? It is hard to nearly impossible for people with mental disabilities to control their feelings and what they do sometimes. It is easy for us to say that she should have known and been able to stop herself from killing her baby. But what if she had schizoprenia, and the voices in her head were telling her that she had to. Or if she had post-pardum psychosis and she thinks that the baby is processed by the devil. If this girl really is mentally ill, she would do better if she was placed somewhere that she could recieve help for her illness rather than jail. What she did was very wrong, but the question is, could she really help what she did?
ReplyDeleteI believe the girl should be helped rather than prosecuted. Being young, and if she does have a mental illness, then it can be treated. Many adults clam insanity and often get sent to a mental hospital for help rather than jail to be prosecuted. While being 11 she should have known better, if she is tested and does have a mental illness, it should be treated, not left alone. People make mistakes all the time, and even get prosecuted for them at times. Once they are prosecuted and have had time to reflect on what they have done, they can still learn from their mistakes. Whether it is too late or not is a different story. While they may have learned from their mistakes, they may still live life in prison. But there are programs out there that can help rebellious young boys and girls realize they need to change their ways before they end up like the inmates. One example is the show ‘Beyond Scared Straight.’ In many cases, the inmates will talk with (yell in the faces of) these young boys and girls to try and show them that the way they are living their life now can end where the inmates are. Can people be redeemed? In some cases, I believe they can be. In everything it all depends on the situation, even in the worse of situations I believe people can be forgiven. Hard as it may be, and the likelihood of it happening are slim to none. But I still believe it can happen.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if you are young enough to have a child you should know better. However, being a nurse, and in mental health rotation it is very important that we get the young girl help and within treatment. There was one case where a mother drowned her three kids, but when she was prosecuted she was found not guilty and the mental illness was blamed. I think that some people are really sick and need all the medical attention they can recieve.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Stefaney. Regardless of whether or not the girl must face the consequences of her actions, I feel that it is absolutely important to get the child some immediate psychiatric help. As Jessica stated many adults plead insanity and thus receive help from a mental institution. I am all for helping the young girl in a mental institution rather than disregarding the possibility of a mental illness and sending her off to jail.
ReplyDeleteI think it is really interesting to note that people intrinsically have a moral system set up from the time they were an infant. There was a recent study in infant morality that yeilded some really interesting results that may be quite pertinent to this question about how old is old enough to "know better"? (Link below)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50135408n
In this study, they tested the preference of 5 month old babies after a puppet show. In the puppet show, a character struggled to open a box. Another character in a yellow shirt helped him open the box. The next scene displays the same but instead the same animal character but with a blue shirt on slammed the box shut. 75% of all babies tested chose to cuddle with the nice character over the mean one. They furthered this test on 3 month olds. 3 month olds don't have the capacity to reach but studies have shown that they stare longer at things the want/like. The majority of the babies studied stared for an average of 33 seconds at the good guy and only 5 at the bad guy. They also furthered the study to include punishment, but I digress.
So, did the girl know better? I think yes. Unless she had some mental illness that inhibited natural behavior or if she legitimately though what she was doing was a game, then the story would be different. Regardless if the act was innocent or malicious, she should definitely be helped.
There is no clear cut age when someone simply "knows better" this is all determined by the child's upbringing, parents and maturity level. I would say that somewhere between the ages of 9 to 13 children should begin to know better for their actions.
ReplyDeletePeople can definitely learn from their actions, thats how children learn right from wrong. In certain cases this is not always true though.If someone is mentally ill, I feel that they may not be able to learn from their mistakes. It all depends on the scenario but i dont believe that everyone that commits a crime can learn from what they did.
I agree with Jackson that there is no clear cut age when someone simply knows better. This is a tough issue to deal with. Humans are very predictable yet unpredictable people. We are all capable of many great things and many evil things even at such a young age. If through tests this child does turn out to have some type of mental illness then of course she should be treated. But if it turns out the child has no mental illness I honestly don't know what you do in that situation. But I do believe people can be rehabilitated and learn from their mistakes even if it isn't an over night process.
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