“Everyone is responsible for their actions but minors are called minors under the law for a reason. They don’t reason like adults. Most can’t reason like adults. With the exception of some heinous crimes the law shouldn’t treat them like adults.”
In our justice system, the line between adult and juvenile or mens rea is blurred and it not dependent on the severity of the crime. There are far more important factors.
It’s not the crime, it’s the state of mind.
I worked with a 16 year old kid that murdered his parents and siblings.
I worked with another 16 year old that molested his sister and had sex with the family dog and set it on fire.
The former was treated as an adult, the latter was treated as a juvenile.
If I had to pick one of those kids to go free, it would be the kid that murdered his family.
I would leave them all locked up.
OK