And then there was one. New York State legislators voted Sunday night to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18, capping a contentious budget fight and giving supporters of the measure victory after years of frustration. The vote leaves North Carolina as the only state which still prosecutes 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, although that may change later this month.
Juvenile Justice and mental health experts, backed by extensive research showing that trying minors as adults causes lasting damage to the teens and the community, have succeeded in raising the age to at least 17 in virtually every state. But New York had clung to laws charging offenders as young as 16 as adults for even minor offenses.
[For more of this story, written by John Holland, go to http://jjie.org/2017/04/10/new...e-court-proceedings/]
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