State lawmakers in two legislative committees this week advanced a bill that would set at 14 the minimum age for juvenile delinquency in New Jersey. That’s the age set by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child set in 2019.
“That age is a recognition of the very important developments in child psychology and brain science in the delayed development for youth when it comes to impulse control, decision-making and being able to appreciate the consequences of one’s actions,” said Yannick Wood, director of the criminal justice reform program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.
New Jersey currently has no minimum age for juvenile delinquency. The bill that would establish 14 as the minimum age had bipartisan support in the Legislature. But some concerns were raised that it would be a gateway for gang members to use kids to get away with crimes.
“It’s really important to know that if you a young person does commit a violent act, they are not going to get away with it,” Wood said. “They are going to be given the services — substance services, metal health services. If they can’t be at home, there are out-of-home placements to protect the public but to also protect the youth as well.
“We like to think of ourselves as a very progressive state but we have the worst racial disparities in youth incarceration in the whole country,” Wood said. “A Black youth is 28.6 times more likely to be incarcerated than a white youth. Hopefully, if we can prevent youth from entering into the system in the first place, they can receive the treatment they need in their own communities.”
