There is no constitutional mandate that everyone is either a child or an adult. Maybe we just need to junk Aristotle and his stupid law of the excluded middle, and decide there are three broad categories: children, adolescents, and adults. Then we could treat the 13-19 year olds appropriately.

Regards,

Jack Tingle

I like the concept of a third group, I have occasionally mused over this for for several decades but I would not define 13-19 year olds diffently.

The lower age should be about 10-12 and the upper age about 15-18. I haven't figured anyway to put wiggle room in the definition.

Well in some ways the law all ready has decided there is a third group; Pregnant females. I just had to take my mom to the Hospital and the consent forms have all the various legal groups in CA. There are 4;

1) An adult that is of sound mind and body

2) An adult that is NOT of sound mind and body and thus needs a legal concesnt from a third party (my mom and me as the son).

3) A non pregnant minor. Note: This has three sub-categories, related to the parents being married, divorced with one having legal consent rights, and divorced \ never married with both having legal consent rights,,

4) Pregnant females (they can sign their own consent IF the procedure is related to pregnancy)

Also, many states have special driving rules that relate only to people in a certain age group as well as the 21 for drinking.

So if you have 15 - 18, then is there still the special 21 rules? Maybe it should be 15 - 20 and all the associated restrictions for those under 21 apply to this group but NOT after they are over 20.

Also, one cannot join the military until they are over 20 (in other words until they are a 'true' adult).

Did you really just say that you cant join the military till you are 20? A simple review of fact are in order before you blow it that bad. Not sure who you got that from, but you should fire your fact checker.

The simple fact is, children are different, suffering from 'diminished capacity'. There needs to be more coherent legal rules in addressing children. The 15 year old, should not be tried as an adult, period. Anyone here know who Sean Sellers is?

I am ashamed that my nation would even consider to commit the basic human rights abuses we do. I know the problem will be corrected, stupidity only goes so far. But unfortunately even something this dumb wil take a while to break the surface. The word to describe a 15 year old in arms, is 'used'.

BTW, I myself was a 'child soldier'. I was a member of the active duty military (and legally drank and posessed alcohol on post, those were the good old days...)

The top post was about having some type of third class of people like half-way-adults (something between minors and adults).

My point about drinking and the military relate to the current laws where 18 is an adult for some things but not other. So if there was going to be a new half-way-adult than it is reasonable to have all the rights line up.

In other words only 'complete-adults' can get married without parental consent, drink, join the military or sign contracts.

Half-way-adults would have rights MINORS do NOT have but NOT the rights that complete-adults do.

With regards to your concern about 15 year olds being judged by the legal system as adults under the new category of 'half-way-adult there would be room in the legal system to handle these cases NOT as a minor or as an Adult.

Age is not the point of crime trials. The elimination of the crime is. It's to bad that some people seek harm under a guise of justice instead of the defeat of crime.

I agree, it's always struck me as odd that you can be responsible enough to vote for your elected leaders and yet still be so untrustworthy as to handle a rental car (generally age 25).