&gt;In my point of view, a person capable of such actions (despite their age) is worth the maximum sentence.<p>So what <i>is</i> your age limit? If 16, why not 15? And if 15, why not 12, or 10, or 7, or 5?<p>The only thing we <i>can</i> say with any certainty is that the Victorians tried and tested the hang-em-high method of crime reduction, with less than stellar results to show for it.