According to street law, a minor is any person who is not yet an adult. In most states and the District of Columbia, individuals under the age of 18 are considered minors. The District of Columbia, as well as most states in the United States, considers anyone under the age of 18 who has committed a crime to be a juvenile criminal. Acts of juvenile delinquency include, but are not limited to: truancy, smoking, drinking, theft, rape, murder, distrust of parents or guardian, etc. A juvenile criminal can only be held in a juvenile facility until the age of 21, no matter how horrific their offense may have been. An illegal act committed by an adult, that is, anyone over the age of eighteen, is considered a crime. Acts such as disobedience, truancy, running away, smoking, and drinking alcohol are not considered crimes for adults. Adult criminals are tried publicly, unlike delinquents or young criminals. Adult criminals can be sentenced to sentences such as life in prison or death, if appropriate based on the nature of the crime committed. Documented criminal acts committed by adults are often permanent public records, unlike documented criminal acts committed by juveniles. Juvenile records are sometimes sealed or dismissed. The theory that minors are not mature enough to intentionally commit a crime has been around since the development of psychology as a science. In the 18th century, the authors of the English penal code concluded that children under the age of seven had not acquired the mental capacity to commit a crime such as murder, rape, burglary, etc. These experts used the following acts to determine whether a crime committed was criminal or noncriminal: (1) The commission of the crime is...... middle of paper ......diciary.house.gov.Michael P . Brown, “Juvenile Offenders; Should they be tried in adult courts? », USA TodayMagazine, January 1998, p.52. Mosi Secret, “States Prosecute Fewer Teenagers in Adult Courts,” New York Times, March 6, 2011. National Institute of Mental Health, “The Architecture of the Brain.” www.nimh.gov.PBS.Com, Inside the Adolescent Brain. www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain.PittsburghPostGazette, “IsThisJustice? ”, www.postgazette.com/regionstate/20010318jintro0318areg2.aspSteven J. Berkowitz, “Child Prisoners: An Assault on Human Rights and Medical Ethnicities,” Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, January 2010. www.raisethagect.org. Thomas J. Benard and Megan C. Kurlychek, The Cycle of Juvenile Justice. New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 2010. William J. Chambliss, ed., Juvenile Crime and Justice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2011.