Apparently, just because a person has become sexually mature doesn`t mean they`re necessarily mentally mature enough to be considered an adult, most cultures today choose a higher age of majority. New York authorities on Monday proposed raising the legal age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21. In 47 states, the age of majority – the age at which a person has the legal rights and obligations of an adult – is 18. Why is 18 considered the age of adulthood? It won`t be easy, but we need to make this change if we are to maintain the current system of age restrictions. The status quo is not only logically inconsistent, but also philosophically unfair in the way it restricts the rights of legal adults. At the age of 18, Americans can claim legal independence from their parents or guardians. You can vote in federal elections at 18 and drink alcohol at 21. These legal age laws act as rites of passage for young Americans as they grow up. But these laws reflect 18th century definitions of maturity and age, rather than the scientific understanding of how age and growth actually work. But it has also fueled confusion about what young adults are allowed to do when scientists know they use less restraint and discipline than older people, said Warren Binford, a law professor at Willamette University and founder of the school`s Child and Family Advocacy Clinic.
Americans` early age-related concerns revolved around when a person should be legally allowed to marry, contract, vote, and testify in court, as well as when they became guilty of crimes. The use of age to set these limits was an explicit rejection of the British system, in which inherited status governed privileges. The Americans wanted to build a system governed by experience and informed consent, with seemingly neutral markers for civil rights. While not everyone can acquire a country or an education, theoretically, everyone could reach the age of 18 or 21. Right now, at the age of 18, you have the right to vote and participate fully in our electoral system. Thus, even 18-year-olds are considered “adult” enough to enlist in the military, marry without parental permission, consent to sexual relations, etc. But our laws, typical nanny state style, also tell these young people that they cannot be given the freedom to smoke cigarettes, use e-cigarettes or drink alcohol (or not) like any other adult. In many States too, the right to self-defence is arbitrarily denied to adults under the age of 21. The age of majority can be confused with the similar concept of the age of bachelor`s degree,[1] which also refers to the threshold of adulthood, but in a much broader and abstract way.
As a legal term in art, “license” means “permission” and may imply a legally enforceable right or privilege. So a licensing age is an age at which you have legal permission from the government to do something. The age of majority, on the other hand, is the legal recognition that you have grown up. [2] For example, the human brain does not stop its development until the age of 25. As life expectancy, education and the age at which people want to marry have increased, it is natural that our youth has extended to 21. There are simply far fewer 19-year-olds living and working alone today, and many at that age are at least somewhat dependent on their parents. Why should we consider them major? This tension can make young people feel disenfranchised and less likely to participate in civic life, said D. Scott Foster, who was 22 in 2010 when he successfully ran for city council in Williamsburg, Virginia. Humans mature and grow as individuals throughout our lives (at least ideally). Thus, the 45-year-old would probably not only be better equipped to make decisions than the 25-year-old version, but in all likelihood a very different person, both literally (replacing your body`s physical condition in this gap) and mentally. Nevertheless, the 45-year-old version of you and the much less mature and less accomplished 25-year-old version live under exactly the same rules and restrictions in most societies.
So why is an arbitrary number like 18 or 21 considered a limit when society says everyone should legally work on an equal footing? What makes a person an “adult” in the first place? Is it the ability to drive a car unattended? Consent to intimate relationships? Ability to vote? Are you serving in the military? Buy a beer? And at what age is a person really ready to take on this responsibility? These are all difficult questions that do not lend themselves to simple answers. But why 18 for the voting age – and not, say, 16 or 19? This is quite arbitrary: there is no scientific basis behind age itself. Although it can be assumed that most 18-year-olds have reached maturity, researchers have shown that adolescence actually extends into the early 20s. Vor dem 20. In the nineteenth century, the age of majority did not matter: young people were regularly elected to the British Parliament, 5-year-olds could sign binding legal contracts to work until the age of 24, and 8-year-olds could be executed for arson. These reformers, like the founding generation, continued to turn a blind eye to the fact that legal age laws only provided for the perception of equality and fairness. Within the justice system, age continues to overlap with social, racial and gender hierarchies to amplify inequalities. But this advance in scientific understanding has done little to eliminate the hodgepodge of state laws granting rights, privileges, and responsibilities between the ages of 8 and 21. For example, 33 States currently do not have a minimum age for criminal responsibility. In other words, in most states, a 5-year-old or 10-year-old (or even a baby) could be charged as an adult if a judge so wishes. For a federal felony, the legal age of criminal responsibility is 11. While in many states a 12-year-old cannot legally be left home alone, such a child could be charged with a federal felony as an adult.
These restrictions on the rights of adults are at the same time totally contradictory and quite well justified. But philosophically, morally and simply reasonably, it only makes sense to maintain these restrictions if we raise adulthood to 21. The state does not have the right to deny legal adults decision-making power on such relatively frivolous matters, compared to what is currently required and granted to 18-year-olds. It`s a question Apryl Alexander, a professor of psychology at the University of Denver, often receives from his graduate students, and one that has become even more difficult with growing research into adolescent brain development. The legal age is also called the age of majority. This is the age at which a person acquires the legal status of an adult. The legal age is determined by state law and may vary from state to state. However, almost all states set the basic legal age at 18. This is the age at which a person takes control of their own actions and affairs and becomes responsible for the decisions they make. People over the legal age of majority are generally tried as adults when charged with crimes.
Once this age is reached, all existing maintenance obligations of parents, guardians and children are deemed to have ended. However, minors may acquire the status of legal majority before reaching the age of majority if they obtain a court decision on emancipation or if they meet exceptions defined by law, such as marriage as a minor or the acquisition of certain qualifications. In this sense, in most jurisdictions, when two people are legally married, age of consent laws generally do not apply at all. It is not entirely clear why this was the era of British common law. One claim is that it goes back to the time when squires could become knights. However, if this is true, it seems to be a consequence rather than a derivation, as this was essentially at the time when minors were considered “adults”. In addition, there are certainly many well-known exceptions in which individuals were considered knights before this age. It seems more likely that this was simply the age at which it was generally observed that people began to reach sufficient mental maturity to no longer require direct supervision. For example, in Washington State, it is legal for a person to have consensual sex at age 11, as long as the person they are having sex with is at least 11 years old and no more than two years older than them.
Even if it is only one day outside these two years, it is illegal and the elderly person faces exceptionally harsh penalties, in some cases up to life imprisonment. Minors between the ages of 12 and 13 are legally allowed to have consensual sexual relations with someone under the age of three years older, and young people between the ages of 14 and 15 with someone under the age of four years older.