I have long maintained that it is no longer appropriate to set an arbitrary age - 17, 18, 19 or whatever – for deciding whether a young person is mature enough to be or not to be responsible for criminal behavior.
Our juvenile laws were enacted eons ago on the premise that children who committed mischievous or other delinquent acts – breaking windows, shooting out street lights with BB guns, shoplifting, petty thefts, truancy - were too immature to realize that what they were doing was wrong. That was long before juveniles started to pile up armed robberies and heinous crimes of violence.
Juveniles mature much earlier than they did years ago and they have become more sophisticated in their criminal behavior. Whether they are gang bangers, drug dealers, armed robbers or cold blooded killers, the age differentiation for criminal responsibility should no longer apply. Mexico’s 15-year-old El Gallito may be an extreme example but he does point out that even a boy his age can be a sophisticated criminal.
Today when a young person under a certain age – as specified by the state wherein he resides - is caught committing a crime he is handled in a juvenile court. If the crime is serious, the juvenile court can refer him to stand trial as an adult. I believe the process should be reversed. If a youngster over the age of 14 commits a serious crime he should appear initially in an adult court. The court can then have the young criminal evaluated to determine if he was mature enough to be held responsible for his actions, and if not, he can then be referred to a juvenile court.
EL GALLITO: MEXICO’S 15-YEAR-OLD DRUG CHIEF
Borderland Beat
October 22, 2011
Prosecutors said Saturday that a 15-year-old boy has confessed to running a drug trafficking gang on the Mexican resort island of Isla Mujeres and murdering two women who reportedly worked as drug dealers.
It was the second time in less than a year that an extremely young male has been detained as a purported drug gang killer in Mexico. Last November, soldiers arrested a 14-year-old U.S. citizen who confessed to killing four people whose beheaded bodies were found hanging from a bridge.
Mexican officials say the involvement of youths in such crimes reflects the difficulty drug cartels are having in recruiting adults, but it also raise fears that Mexico's drug violence may have accustomed young people to extreme levels of violence.
The Isla Mujeres cases involve a youth who prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo identified only by his nickname, "El Gallito" or "The Little Rooster".
Heavily tattooed, El Gallito appears more mature than his age, prosecutors said.
State Attorney General Gaspar Garcia Torres said the boy claimed to have been in charge of the lucrative Isla Mujeres drug market for a local gang known as "Los Pelones," equivalent to the Bald or Shaved Heads. The gang is reputedly fighting the Zetas cartel for control of the area around the coastal resort of Cancun.
A spokesman for the prosecutors office said the boy told investigators that he and two older associates slashed the throats of the two women at a hotel on Isla Mujeres. Their women's bodies were found before dawn Thursday, and El Gallito was detained Friday.
"He confessed to having full participation in carrying out these deeds, and from the start he claimed to have been in charge of drug sales in the area, in this case for the Pelones, and that his duties were to receive the drugs," said the spokesman, who was not allowed to be quoted by name.
The women were purportedly killed after they betrayed the Pelones gang by selling drugs they obtained from other sources.
The boy was turned over to a youthful offender facility to face homicide charges. Because of his age, he cannot be identified or tried as an adult. In most parts of Mexico, youths are tried and sentenced in juvenile courts, but cannot be held after they turn 18.
Last year's case involved a 14-year-old U.S. citizen, who was identified by his family as Edgar Jimenez Lugo, known as "El Ponchis." He was sentenced in July to three years in prison for homicide, kidnapping and drug and weapons possession. It was the maximum sentenced allowed for a minor.
Authorities say the teenager confessed to working for the South Pacific cartel, which is allegedly led by Hector Beltran Leyva.
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