# Youngest tried as an adult? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2006, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-tried-as-an-adult/351699 "2006-04-07T11:42:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-tried-as-an-adult/351699/1 "2006-04-07T11:42:04Z")
(a) Is there any way to Google info on who might be the youngest child to be tried as an adult? (b) My wife and I were debating whether this is based on how close in age the minor is to being an adult, or is it the seriousness of the crime, or maybe we’re both right, for some cases? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-tried-as-an-adult/351699/2 "2006-04-07T12:10:14Z")
Don’t know the youngest but, > [@](#): > > As of the end of the 2004 legislative sessions, 23 states have at least one provision for transferring juveniles to criminal court for which no minimum age is specified. (Note that other statutory provisions in these states may specify a minimum age for delinquency jurisdiction, below which a child cannot even be treated as a delinquent in juvenile court, and/or a minimum age for criminal responsibility, below which no one is considered capable of committing a crime.) Of the remainder, minimum ages ranging from 10 to 15 are specified. > > [NCJJ - State Juvenile Justice Profiles, 2005](http://www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles/overviews/transfer5.asp) > > Citation: Griffin, Patrick. 2005. “National Overviews.” State Juvenile Justice Profiles. Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice. Online. Available: [NCJJ - State Juvenile Justice Profiles, 2005](http://www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles/). [Table 1: Minimum Age for Adult Prosecution and for Life without Parole Sentencing by State](http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us1005/4.htm) {Scroll down for the table} CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-tried-as-an-adult/351699/3 "2006-04-07T12:42:08Z")
Nathaniel Abraham was charged as an adult for a crime he committed at the age of 11 as reported by [Court TV](http://www.courttv.com/archive/trials/abraham/101999_ctv.html) but he is only one of many thousands of juveniles tried as adults. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-tried-as-an-adult/351699/4 "2006-04-07T14:18:03Z")
The murderers of [James Bulger](http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/young/bulger/1.html) were 10 and were tried as adults in the UK in 1993. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-tried-as-an-adult/351699/5 "2006-04-08T00:54:29Z")
You might recall Malvo was the assistant in the Wash DC/N VA area sniper shootings. I’ll have to google it, but I think he was being tried as an adult, but I forget his age. Will dig into this over the next two weeks…have more pressing matters for now. - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youngest-tried-as-an-adult/351699/6 "2006-04-08T00:57:22Z")
It’s not quite what you’re asking, but the youngest inmate I’ve seen in an adult prison was 16. He’d been in the juvenile facility, but proved so unmanageable he got transferred to my institution to protect staff and other juvenile offenders. He’d been tried and convicted as an adult, and if he’d behaved himself he’d have stayed in the juvenile facility until he was 18 and then would have been transferred to adult prison.