The arrest of a 4-year-old

Experts differ over method’s effectiveness

Orange County youth in 2010 and the more recent arrests of secondgraders in Hallendale Beach show the challenges and emotional risks involved.

Believe it or not, the Hallandale Beach second-graders handcuffed and arrested this month for allegedly punching a boy and trying to steal his bike are not the youngest ever arrested in Florida. That distinction goes to a 4-year-old.

The Orange County youth, not yet in kindergarten, was the youngest of a group of five children arrested on felony burglary and misdemeanor criminal mischief charges for breaking into and vandalizing a neighbor’s shed in August 2010.

Palm Beach County’s youngest arrestee was 5, accused of sexual misdeeds with a friend.

Broward’s was 6, collared for throwing a rock at a car.

Miami-Dade’s youngest, a 100-pound 8-year-old, was accused of threatening another child with a footlong butcher knife. They’d had a fight over a basketball game.

“What the f---, b----?” the 8-year-old said, according to the police report. “I’m going to f-----stab you.”

Prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges in each case. When accused criminals are especially young, their cases are generally resolved without criminal charges.

Florida, like about two-thirds of states, sets no minimum age for arrest. Statewide, 80 children younger than 9 were arrested in fiscal year 2014-15. Four of them were in Broward County, two in

Miami-Dade.

The arrest of the Orange County 4-year-old and his elementary school-aged cohorts, 6, 8, 9 and 11, was prompted when a Mount Dora man discovered someone had busted a padlock on his shed, spray-painted the outside walls and vandalized an RV parked on his property, according to an arrest affidavit.

The man told a deputy he was fed up with the kids next door cursing him out, constantly irritating him and hitting his dog with a stick. He said he had tried speaking with the kids’ mothers to no avail.

When the responding deputy went to the children’s home and spoke with their mothers, the kids admitted to the property damage and handed over a black marker and a can of black spray paint they had taken from the neighbor’s shed, the affidavit said.

“I did not wish to arrest these kids, but chose to file with the state attorney’s office instead,” Deputy Christopher Wood wrote in the arrest affidavit. “The victim does wish to press charges, but would only ask for probation so that some type of control could be placed on them.”

Although those children were not handcuffed and taken into custody, the Department of Juvenile Justice considers it an arrest. “A police officer can have reason to believe that a crime has been committed and choose not to take a child into custody but instead proceed with referring the case to prosecutors and the Department of Juvenile Justice,” said Heather DiGiacomo, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

A band of rock-throwing boys prompted Broward County’s youngest arrest.

Plantation police in April 2014 arrested a 6-year-old boy on a vandalism charge after a driver on Hiatus Road reported hearing a thump and seeing a rock bounce off the side of his pickup, according to a juvenile arrest report.

A witness stopped the 6-year-old and four other boys as they ran from the bushes on the side of the road and held them until police arrived, the report said.

Young children who run afoul of the law don’t always find themselves in trouble for delinquent behavior like vandalism, property damage and criminal mischief. Sometimes the behavior is scary, concerning and violent.

Such was the case with MiamiDade County’s youngest arrest in March 2010.

An 8-year-old boy got into an argument with another child over a basketball game and threatened to stab him. The aggressor went home, got a butcher knife and showed up at the other kid’s house, spewing curse words and threats, an arrest affidavit said.

The boy’s mother showed up, disarmed her son and took him home. Police came to his house and took him into custody on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

It was a sexual act that led to Palm Beach County’s March 2010 arrest of a 5-year-old boy in Greenacres.

He and another boy, also 5, were supposed to be napping when one of their mothers caught one of the boys with his pants down and the other boy kissing his buttocks and penis, according to a juvenile referral report.

The boy was arrested on a sexual battery charge after the 5-year-old victim told police he had taken off his pants more than once so the other boy could kiss him on his “pee pee” and butt.

“If there are alternatives to arrest options, we look at those,” DiGiacomo said. “Often times we find out there is something else going on that should be addressed, such as getting them services as opposed to pushing them into the juvenile justice system.”

That was the result for the 7and 8-year-old arrested Jan. 4 at BF James Park in Hallandale Beach. The 10-year-old boy who owned the bike they tried to steal told police he was punched in the face and twice in the back of the head.

Broward prosecutors announced this week that instead of facing criminal charges, the boys have been referred to a program where they can participate in family counseling, anger management, conflict resolution and after-school activities.

Some who work with children without embracing the toughlove approach say introducing children so young to the criminal justice system is sure to breed fear and distrust of authority.

“When you handcuff a 6-year-old, all that’s going to do is frighten kids of police or just make them more defiant. I think it just exacerbates more bad behavior,” said Fran Sherman, a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist based in Palm Beach Gardens and Royal Palm Beach. “Scaring kids straight, I don’t think it works. I don’t think fear ever helps kids learn anything.”

Others see it differently. Among them is Kay Brown, a former teacher at Sago Palm Academy, a former juvenile detention facility for boys in Pahokee and current president of the Palm Beach County Teachers Association/Retired.

“These kids have not learned their lesson. They have not been scared straight and we’re going to hear from them and see them again,” said Brown, 70. “We’re looking at future adult criminals in these 7- and 8-year-olds. This is how it starts, by ignoring the situation. Counseling means nothing to them.”