It’s interesting how, in all other aspects of society, we agree that children lack the ability to make rational decisions on their own. We don’t let them vote, we don’t let them sign contracts, we don’t let them drink or buy weapons, and we regulate their access to motor vehicles.

But as soon as a child commits a crime, we assign them total moral agency. In fact, the worse the crime, the more agency we assign them.

There is no way for a child to convince adults that they should be allowed to bypass age-based restrictions and gain access to, say, voting or alcohol. Yet our society seems happy to take crime as evidence of advanced decision-making capability.