Children Under 7 Are Not Held Responsible for Crimes

“According to our legal system, children under 7 are not held responsible for crimes. It is said that a 6 yr. old cannot form criminal intent.”(Joby Milo Anthony) During the child’s preschool years or now called “early childhood which refers to ages 2 to 6, this is a period of extraordinary growth, learning, and play, joyful and a time for impressive growth in every domain.” “In early childhood as in infancy, the body and the brain develop according to powerful epigenetic forces, biologically driven and socially guided, experience expectant and experience dependent, the bodies and brain mature in size and function.”(Berger, pg. 209). “Between the ages of 2 to 6, the brain grows from 75 % to 90% of adult weight, with increases particularly in the areas that allow advanced language and social understanding.”(Berger,pg. 212) To further understand why the lawmakers might have felt that it was important for society, that a child or children under 7 are not developmental accountable for their criminal actions. I will share or list reasoning, theories to the law. As I continue to read I have found out that the Amygdala is located deep in the brain, which the function of this structure is to regulate the emotions, particularly fear and anxiety in the youth. When there is a surge in growth of Amygdala of movement, it has been proven this is a reason why young children have nightmares and unexpected alarms, which put a strain on the prefrontal cortex as it unsettles the young child’s area of reasoning. (Berger, 2011).

“Young children are sometimes egocentric, understanding only their own perspective. Among their developing ideas is a theory of mind, an understanding of how the mind works.” (Berger, pg. 237). Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget was famous for observing children’s reasoning and understanding differently, depending on their age. Piaget projected that all children progress or advance through a series of cognitive stages of development. “Early childhood