It’s no secret that kids under the age of 18 are denied the right to vote, smoke cigarettes and gamble, among other rights. However, it’s surprising that our justice system, which gives minors limited responsibilities solely because of their age, also holds them to a lifetime of responsibility for actions they’ve done as children.

Currently, American citizens are serving life-sentences for homicides they have committed as young as 13. This measure has been instituted at the bidding of victims’ rights groups which insist that homicides warrant life imprisonments even if they are committed by those who have not yet graduated from middle school.

Victims’ rights group advocates such as Kent S. Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, are currently advocating that each case should be considered individually, age being one factor to consider along with the particular circumstances in which the crime was committed. Scheidegger told The New York Times, “Sharp cutoffs by age, where a person’s legal status changes suddenly on some birthday, are only a crude approximation of correct policy.”

This stance goes against the commonly acknowledged claim in the scientific community that young people’s brains are still in the process of development. In fact, immaturity, impulsive behavior and peer pressure contribute to heinous crimes committed by minors more than they do when adults perpetrate the same crimes. A child’s potential for change also offers a unique opportunity for rehabilitation because they are still maturing.

While we at WSN believe that homicides should be punished regardless of who commits them, therapy and rehabilitation would serve our society better than a life sentence, the promise exists for these children to re-enter society as law-abiding citizens once their terms of punishment end. A recent New York Times article quoted Federal judge Michael A. Wolff: “Juveniles should not be sentenced to die in prison any more than they should be sent to prison to be executed.”

To condemn a child, who may hail from a violent upbringing, to death in prison is cruel, unusual and an inappropriate application of adult standards to those who have not yet reached adulthood.