Serious crimes are adult crimes, regardless of the age of the perpetrator. The perpetrator needs to be seriously punished for the crime, too. But sentencing a 14- or 15-yr-old to life in prison for a murder? What about the 6-yr-old who brought a gun to school and shot his teacher? I doubt if he understood the magnitude of his act, even though he likely knows the words to say and could say them.

I tend to agree with the Supreme Court Justice who worried about life sentences for children.

Serious crimes are adult crimes. Full stop. But who’s responsible for them, really? The child who did the deed needs punishment, as I said, but he’s also able to be reeducated, or at least worth the attempt.

However. It’s the parent or parents, whether biological or adoptive, who raised the child, who led the child astray or who let him wander astray through negligently absent parental attention.

I suggest this alternative: try the child as an adult for his adult crime, but put him into a juvenile detention and education environment. Adjudicate a suitable jail term for the crime; apply the sentencing guidelines for the crime committed, but apply the upper end of the guidelines to the parents—both of them if they’re present in the family.

Mom and pop should be in jail for the crime their child, for whom they are irrevocably responsible, committed.