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Minor Stepbrother Physically Hurting Minor Stepbrother

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  • 07-21-2010, 05:14 PM
    heidid
    Minor Stepbrother Physically Hurting Minor Stepbrother
    My question involves criminal law for the state of Maryland: My autistic nephew's (age9) stepbrother (age13) continually does things to hurt my nephew; such as, dragging him across a rug and giving him rug burns, hitting him, tripping him, and most recently drawing a Hitler style mustache on him with permanent ink. My nephew had a slight reaction to the ink, but it eventually went away. At what point can the stepbrother be charged with some form of assault? His father does punish this boy but he appears to be a bad seed with no remorse for his actions. His own father has told him that if another incident occurs he will do whatever it takes to show him the consequences of his actions.
  • 07-21-2010, 06:41 PM
    aardvarc
    Re: Minor Stepbrother Physically Hurting Minor Stepbrother
    Realistically? The adult who is supposed to be supervising the autistic child would be more likely to face CPS accusations of neglect than the other child would be to see criminal charges for what is going to be seen as age-typical behaviors. Unless there is some serious injury to the 9 year old, "the system" is going to see this as a PARENTING problem. What have the parents done as far as having the 13 year old evaluated by a mental health professional? Because even IF police should get involved at some point in the future, that is where "problem children" under 16 are typically funnelled before being returned right back to the same environment. Might as well save some time.
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