“James Crumbley is not on trial for what his son did,” prosecutor Karen McDonald told the jury. “James Crumbley is on trial for what he did and for what he didn’t do.”
They neglected their son's mental health problems and left a gun unlocked at home
But age up everyone 20 years in the story so everyone is more obviously an adult in your head. 60-something year old parents neglecting their adult son's mental health is not their fault anymore. If he's an adult, it's his responsibility. Even if the dad bought the son a gun, if the son is an adult, then the son was responsible for locking it up and keeping it safe.
It makes sense to me to charge a parent for getting their kid access to something dangerous and ignoring safety requirements. Like installing a pool without a fence that a kid drowns in, that's clearly morally the parent's fault. But the kid has to be a kid. Buying your adult child a pool which they later drown in is not the parent's fault. Culpability shifts when the child becomes an adult.
The son is 15. That's still very much the parents responsibility. That's a child who lives with his parents, who can't buy his own gun, who doesn't have the same mental capacity as the 35 year old in your hypothetical.
Great. Don't charge him as an adult then.
These are two separate cases
I'm saying that the case declaring him an adult was wrong to do so, if the facts of the case show that he was a child whose parents are both liable for his actions.
Sure they are separate cases so the legal system can treat him as an adult and a child at the same time. But that's bad. The legal system shouldn't do that.
They neglected their son's mental health problems and left a gun unlocked at home
But age up everyone 20 years in the story so everyone is more obviously an adult in your head. 60-something year old parents neglecting their adult son's mental health is not their fault anymore. If he's an adult, it's his responsibility. Even if the dad bought the son a gun, if the son is an adult, then the son was responsible for locking it up and keeping it safe.
It makes sense to me to charge a parent for getting their kid access to something dangerous and ignoring safety requirements. Like installing a pool without a fence that a kid drowns in, that's clearly morally the parent's fault. But the kid has to be a kid. Buying your adult child a pool which they later drown in is not the parent's fault. Culpability shifts when the child becomes an adult.
The son is 15. That's still very much the parents responsibility. That's a child who lives with his parents, who can't buy his own gun, who doesn't have the same mental capacity as the 35 year old in your hypothetical.
Great. Don't charge him as an adult then.
These are two separate cases
I'm saying that the case declaring him an adult was wrong to do so, if the facts of the case show that he was a child whose parents are both liable for his actions.
Sure they are separate cases so the legal system can treat him as an adult and a child at the same time. But that's bad. The legal system shouldn't do that.