A North Carolina bill is pushing to end the prosecution of 6-year-olds.
Right now, North Carolina has the lowest prosecution age set by law in the country. According to ABC News, a person as young as six years old can be prosecuted in North Carolina Juvenile Court. However, there’s a bipartisan effort that is moving to bump the age of delinquency to 10.
The mission comes after more than 2,100 complaints were filed against nearly 1,150 youths under the age of 10, from 2016 to 2019, ABC News reports. The majority of those children accused of wrongdoing were Black. Data shows 211 children ages 6 to 9 were seen before a judge, including 54 who were actually found to be responsible for the complaints.
State prisons say no child under the age of 10 has ever been jailed; however, racial justice advocates, attorneys and legislators say the court appearance alone can be detrimental to a child.
“The likelihood of them lacking legal capacity is so high, and the potential for real identity development damage is also really high,” said Barbara Fedders, director of the Youth Justice Clinic at the University of North Carolina School of Law. “It just feels like we are doing them all a disservice if we can’t find a better way to deal with these issues than prosecution.”
Black children, ages 6 to 9, only make up 24 percent of the North Carolina population, yet they are accused of committing 47 percent of the wrongdoings. White kids in that same age group make up 53 percent of the population and 39 percent of the complaints.
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