Juveniles tried as adults

Some weeks ago I read a headline in the local paper that read something along the lines of "Local Teen to be Tried as Adult." I didn't read the article so I have no idea what this particular case was about, but the headline and the notion of trying children as adults stuck with me.

I've given it some thought, and I am categorically against trying children as adults, at least the way we go about it currently.

Basically, trying children as adults gives them all the responsibility of being an adult, without any of the benefits. We're telling kids as young as 13 or 14, "We consider you to be mentally mature enough to fully appreciate the gravity of what you've done and are going to hold you accountable as such. However, we do not consider you mentally mature enough to vote, make the decision to smoke, consume pornography, live on your own, manage your financial affairs, purchase lottery tickets, drive a car and all the other rights and privileges of being a full member of society."

It's absurd. Surely if a child was cognizant enough to understand the full ramifications of committing assault, robbery, murder (intentional or otherwise) and all the other big ticket crimes that land juveniles in adult court, they can understand the ramifications of a cigarette? Or a ballot box. Or a credit card. But, if they can't be trusted with all those other things that full members of society are trusted with, under what logic can they stand trial as an adult?

I propose that, for a prosecutor to even bring charges against a minor as an adult, that child must first be fully and permanently emancipated by the state. For all legal intents and purposes, they will be 18, regardless of what their chronological age might be. If it seems silly, dangerous or outrageous to give a child all the power and freedom of adulthood, then it must be equally silly and dangerous to make them shoulder all the responsibility of one as well.