Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Should a 10-year-old be charged for Southern CA's fire?

kurty[B] · 11-08-2007, 10:58 AM

Some punishment is in order. Jail time is nonsense, millions in fines is nonsense.

For a perspective. I, along with a bunch of my friends (ages 8-12) trashed our old babysitter's house one day. She was not home, we smashed windows, we TP'ed the home, we set dog shit in a paper bag on her porch on fire (we didn't realize this trick was supposed to be done when someone was home to stomp it out). It caught the toilet paper on fire, which then caught the front of the house on fire. We were long gone when the fire department showed up, but damage to the house was minimal. A much different scenario as what we did was intentional, but we did not get sent to jail or juvenile hall and if we had I'm sure that would have just been worse, we had to do community service and pay for the repairs to her home (about $800 out of each of our pockets; there were over ten of us involved). The monetary loss (my parents made me use my savings, and work my ass off all summer to cover it), had more impact than any jailtime would have.

I think in this case, a minimal fine (enough to impact the child's life, but not bankrupt the family), and mandatory community service time (trail building, tree planting) something to keep him occupied every other weekend for half a year would probably let him know (I'm sure he already does at this point) that what he did (accident or no) was not safe or permissible.

11-08-2007, 10:58 AM	#15 (permalink)
kurty[B] Sauce Puppet	Some punishment is in order. Jail time is nonsense, millions in fines is nonsense. For a perspective. I, along with a bunch of my friends (ages 8-12) trashed our old babysitter's house one day. She was not home, we smashed windows, we TP'ed the home, we set dog shit in a paper bag on her porch on fire (we didn't realize this trick was supposed to be done when someone was home to stomp it out). It caught the toilet paper on fire, which then caught the front of the house on fire. We were long gone when the fire department showed up, but damage to the house was minimal. A much different scenario as what we did was intentional, but we did not get sent to jail or juvenile hall and if we had I'm sure that would have just been worse, we had to do community service and pay for the repairs to her home (about $800 out of each of our pockets; there were over ten of us involved). The monetary loss (my parents made me use my savings, and work my ass off all summer to cover it), had more impact than any jailtime would have. I think in this case, a minimal fine (enough to impact the child's life, but not bankrupt the family), and mandatory community service time (trail building, tree planting) something to keep him occupied every other weekend for half a year would probably let him know (I'm sure he already does at this point) that what he did (accident or no) was not safe or permissible. __________________ In the Absence of Information People Make Things Up. Last edited by kurty[B]; 11-08-2007 at 11:01 AM..