Criminal Law
Infancy is an affirmative defense offered by a defendant in a criminal proceeding that the defendant did not have the mens rea necessary to be charged with the crime on account of their age. In other words, the defendant was too young to possess the capacity to understand the wrongfulness of their actions. The defense of infancy originated out of a hesitancy to punish minors that are incapable of forming criminal intent as adults.
Courts may take different stances for when infancy can be used as a defense but common law has traditionally shown that any child under the age of seven does not have criminal liability due to their incapacity. Additionally, children between ages seven to fourteen may have a presumption of incapacity but that presumption can be rebutted by evidence that shows the child had the capacity to understand the wrongfulness of their actions at the time of the offense. Children over fourteen have a presumption of capacity for criminality. Many states either have legislation that sets their own age ranges for infancy or have codified the common law approach.
In recent years, the development of a juvenile court system has lessened the need for infancy as a defense because minors aren’t being tried as adults as often. In the juvenile court system minors are typically charged as juvenile delinquents instead of as adults, effectively negating the infancy defense because in most states, unless the state has enacted legislation which allows infancy to be used as a defense in a juvenile court setting, the defense otherwise cannot be offered (See In re Tyvonne M.). The juvenile court system and infancy defense achieve similar goals with the former’s focus on rehabilitating minors that lack capacity rather than punishing them and the latter’s similar purpose to prevent punishment of minors that lack capacity. Infancy can still be offered as defense in some states, such as New York, in cases where minors are charged as adults for particularly heinous offenses.
Civil Law
Infancy can similarly be offered as a defense to civil liability. States are divided on what civil claims infancy can be offered as a defense to, but most only allow an infancy defense in limited circumstances.
In contract law, infancy can be used to negate contractual obligations. In most states, contracts entered by minors are voidable because there is a presumption that the minor did not have the capacity to enter into the contract. Additionally, the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) recognizes infancy as a defense to simple contractual obligations. (see UCC 3-305(a)(1)).
[Last updated in June of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]