Frontline: Little Criminals

Last year, a six-year-old boy in Richmond, California entered the home of a neighbor to steal a Big Wheel tricycle and savagely beat a one-month-old infant nearly to death. The case, seized upon by the media, crime watchdogs and the legal system raised important psychological, legal and ethical questions never before considered in the United States. Should a six-year-old be tried as an adult for murder? Should the parents be held responsible? Can a child know what life and death is, or what a lawyer does? There are many painful, heartbreaking images in this film: investigators reading the six-year-old boy his Miranda Rights, the child locked up in a juvenile facility for teenagers, the Playskool toys scattered around his prison cell, the expert witness testifying that this boy is "genetically" destined to be a total failure in life because he's a bully and a chronic bedwetter, the parents of the beaten baby pleading for mercy for the six-year-old, the media frenzy, and more. This is a film that questions our fundamental notions of childhood and offers--especially in the wake of the recent Jonesboro Tragedy--a thought-provoking discussion of whether or not our society should forgive and rehabilitate or lock up and punish young offenders. Highly recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Ray)