Question: Should people, including children, with mental retardation who committed crimes be held accountable for their actions?
It has already been a common knowledge to us that those people, including children, with mental retardation could not or should not be held fully accountable of the things that they do and on the other hand, it is also known that people, who are in their normal state of mind, should make considerations for the actions of the mentally retarded ones. Well of course, we all know that a mentally retarded person lacks the ability or the capacity that a normal person has and that mentally retarded people are those who have intellectual functioning level that is well below average and have significant limitations in their daily living skills. But what if it comes to the point where these people kill one of their relatives or a person that they don’t even know for no reason at all? What if these mentally retarded people and children commit crimes? Should they be held responsible for their actions, or is the fact that they are mentally retarded an enough reason for them to be excused to the crimes that they have committed?
In a society, sending a mentally retarded person into the prison or in some worse cases, the death row, for the crimes that they have committed seems to sound very inhumane. For some people, having these mentally retarded people face the consequences of the crimes that they have done is a cruel thing to do especially in the case of children. They believe that it is immoral to hold someone criminally responsible who had an intellectual functioning level below an average person. But for some, especially for the people on the side of the victim of the crime, it is just or the appropriate thing to do.
In my opinion, it is indeed appropriate to have these people who have committed crimes face the consequences of their actions even though they are mentally retarded. However, I still believe that we should still make some...