Minor (law)
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In many countries such as the India, UK, the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand a minor is presently defined as a person under the age of 18.
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[edit] Usage
The terms "infant", "child", "adolescent", "teen", "youth", "juvenile" and "young person" are also used, although some jurisdictions make a legal distinction between these terms. Minor status carries with it special restrictions, penalties and protections that do not apply to adults. All member states of the United Nations except the United States and Somalia have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Examples of restrictions imposed on minors include statutory rape laws, prohibitions against the use of alcohol and cigarettes, compulsory school attendance, the need for adult co-signers on legal documents (e.g. contracts), driver's license requirements, separate punishment and trial (e.g. juvenile courts), child labor laws, curfew laws and prohibitions against voting.
Restrictions imposed on minors are typically justified by an assumption of diminished mental capacity. Some jurisdictions allow juvenile emancipation, whereby a minor who can demonstrate competency may take on some rights that are normally reserved for adults.
Not all age-based restrictions are necessarily tied to the same transitional age. The transition from minor to adult, however, is typically defined by the age at which one may independently enter into contracts.
At the end of the 20th century most countries outside of Asia allowed most or all age-based transitions to occur by the age of 18. The propriety of age-based restrictions and selection of a transition age for each remains open to debate due to continued questions about age-specific decision-making capabilities.
[edit] Australia
In Australia, there are several gradations of responsibility before full legal adulthood. Those under age ten are free of all criminal responsibility under the doli incapax doctrine of UK legal tradition. Those under the age of fourteen are presumed incapable of responsibility, but this can be disputed in court. The age of full legal responsibility is 18 except in Queensland, where it is 17.
The age of majority is 18 for most purposes including sitting on a jury, voting, standing as a candidate, marriage, hiring R-rated films or seeing them in a theater, buying/viewing pornography and purchasing alcohol and tobacco products.
[edit] United States
In the United States as of 1995, minor was legally defined as a person under eighteen. However, not all minors were considered "juveniles" in terms of criminal responsibility.
In eleven states, including Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas, a "juvenile" is legally defined as a person under seventeen. In three states, Connecticut, New York, and North Carolina, "juvenile" refers to a person under sixteen. [1]In other sates a juvenile is legally defined as a person under eighteen.
Under this distinction, those considered juveniles are usually tried in juvenile court, and they may be afforded other special protections. For example, a parent or guardian must be present during police questioning, and their names are kept confidential when they are accused of a crime.
The US Department of Defense took the position that they would not consider the "enemy combatants" they held in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps to be minors unless they were less than sixteen years old. In the event they only separated three of the more than a dozen detainees who were under 16 from the adult prison population. And all the several dozen detainees who were between sixteen and eighteen years of age were detained with the adult prison population. Now those under 18 are kept separate in line with the age of majority and world expectations.
[edit] United Kingdom
- Further information: Law of England and Wales, Law of Northern Ireland, and Law of Scotland
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland a minor is a person under the age of 18; in Scotland, under the age of 16. The age of criminal responsibility in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 10; and 8 in Scotland.
Cases of minors breaking the law, they are often dealt with by the Youth Offending Team, if they are incarcerated they will be sent to a Youth detention center.
[edit] See also
- Age of consent
- Age of criminal responsibility
- Age of majority
- Boy and Girl
- Marriageable age
- Voting age
- Youth rights
- Ephebiphobia
- Adultism
