Quick Note: ATSA has released a new Policy Brief: Protecting Ohio’s Youth: A Developmentally Informed Approach to Juvenile Justice Reform. Our members flagged this case two weeks ago, and we moved
quickly to synthesize the evidence for advocates, providers, and the
public. If this is useful, please share the brief with colleagues, local
officials, and anyone shaping the conversation.
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By Aniss Benelmouffok, Director of Public Affairs, ATSA
"What
does justice look like when the accused are in elementary school?"
David Gambino and Lucas Daprile pose this question in their
insightful coverage of the case involving a 9-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl
accused of the attempted murder and rape of an autistic girl in Ohio.
Our members highlighted this case as it's coverage resonated with the public and it focused attention to Ohio's juvenile
justice system. Local media has captured the
compelling and emotional call of a parent seeking justice and accountability for her daughter. The community response has been significant; a
GoFundMe campaign is nearing its $180,000 dollar goal, and a
change.org petition is over 80% toward its goal of 100,000 signatures. This attention offers a unique opportunity for policy change—one that protects Ohio's youth.
Current Ohio law prohibits transferring youth to adult court until at least the age of 14. ATSA members were alarmed by calls to lower this age in the name of accountability. This is not a loophole. There’s a reason current Ohio law
draws a bright line at transferring youth to adult court at age 14 and
older: development matters to due process and to public safety.
Treatment is public safety.
The justice system faces the extraordinary challenge of ensuring safety and providing a meaningful response when harm occurs. Children deserve responses that cater to their developmental stage, allowing them to understand, react, and change.
Accountability for children isn’t adult time. It’s concrete, comprehensible, and supervised. As our policy brief states: When young children exhibit violent or harmful behavior, the response should be one of evaluation, treatment, and family-based intervention, not adult-style prosecution or incarceration. Harmful behavior
from children often signals their own exposure to/experience of trauma
that should not be negated. Holding young people accountable should mean
helping them understand the impact of their actions — not subjecting
them to retribution.
Justice and accountability when children cause sexual harm requires understanding, intervention, and prevention. Ohio now stands at a crossroads: it can choose to respond with fear-based policies or to adopt reforms grounded in science and evidence. Protecting Ohio’s youth means ensuring that our laws reflect what we know about how children grow, learn, change and why they cause harm. For children to comprehend our response to their actions, development must be the foundation for holding them accountable.
