Virtually every country on earth explicitly prohibits prosecutors from charging children under 7 with a crime, according to data compiled by the Child Rights International Network.Virginia, by contrast, is one of 24 states in the U.S. that has no minimum age for prosecution, according to the National Juvenile Justice Network, a fact the group calls “shocking to the conscience.”Andrew Block, an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, told CNN that, while prosecutors could technically file charges, “it is incredibly unlikely that it would lead to a successful prosecution.”The U.S. legal system requires that defendants be “competent” to stand trial, meaning they can understand the proceedings and their consequences — something that experts say is impossible for a 6-year-old.Lawmakers in at least five states considered establishing or raising a minimum age for prosecution last year, according to NPR.Laws about whether young children can be charged at all are separate from several “raise the age” efforts in states like New York, aimed at preventing people under the age of 18 from being charged as adults.The officer put his knee in the child’s back, according to an arrest report, and told the groaning second-grader: “If you, my friend, are not acquainted with the juvenile justice system, you will be very shortly.”It’s a statement that wouldn’t make sense in most other places on earth."