NEW YORK — Aged 11 and 13, Nathaniel Abraham and Nathaniel Brazill were too young to see a standard Hollywood slasher film without adult accompaniment. But they were old enough, when arrested for murder, to be tried as adults.
Douglas Thomas was older--17--when he committed murder. In some states, that's too young to undergo body piercing without parental consent. In Virginia, that was old enough to send Thomas to the death chamber.
Across America, prosecutors and legislators are pushing to try more juveniles as adults. But, simultaneously, law-abiding adolescents are subject to ever-widening restrictions that treat them explicitly as non-adults--curfews, parental-consent requirements, an array of zero-tolerance policies at schools.
"The kids are being blamed for everything and credited with nothing," said Jason Zeidenberg, a policy analyst with the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice in Washington. "Kids today are a scapegoat generation."
If an 11-year-old can be charged as an adult, as Abraham was in Michigan, and if 20-year-olds are too young to buy beer, who is an adult these days and who isn't? It depends.
There Is No Clear-Cut 'Age of Majority'
Though 18 is the age most commonly used to define adulthood in America, there is no single, clear-cut "age of majority." Instead, a welter of federal, state and local laws set widely varying thresholds for young people's rights and responsibilities.
At 18 they can vote, sign contracts, fight in Army combat units, file lawsuits, decide for themselves about medical treatment. But generally they are still too young to purchase liquor or rent a car.
Girls younger than 18 can put a baby up for adoption without parental consent, but most states require parents' involvement before a minor can have an abortion. The legal age of consent for sex ranges from 14 to 18, depending on the state and whether the sexual partner is a peer or an adult.
Traditionally, lawbreakers under 18 were dealt with by juvenile courts. Their names were kept private; sentences were tailored to maximize the chance for rehabilitation.
Over the last decade, however, nearly every state has passed laws making it easier for minors to be tried in adult courts.
Among those states was Michigan, where Abraham faced a possible life sentence during his murder trial a year ago. The judge, assailing a "fundamentally flawed" approach to juvenile justice, instead sentenced the boy to youth detention, with release scheduled when he turns 21.
