In New York state, children as young as 7 can be arrested and charged as juvenile delinquents in family court. But is that age too young? It's a question being asked in the.
Children in New York can be charged as juvenile delinquents beginning at age 7, which explains why a boy of that age could be charged with rape in March in upstate Brasher Falls, New York.
A 7-Year-Old Was Accused of Rape. Is Arresting Him the Answer?
“Science doesn’t support prosecution of second graders,” one lawyer said. Still, in New York, children as young as 7 can be charged with a crime.
An arrest of a child shook tiny Brasher Falls, a hamlet near the Canadian border, and may have restarted a push in the Legislature to change New York’s law.Credit.Malik Rainey for The New York Times
June 3, 2021Updated 9:43 a.m. ET
At the forested edge of the Canadian border this spring, state police arrested a person from the hamlet of Brasher Falls, N.Y., population about 1,000. He was charged with rape.