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Criminal charges have been dropped against two Florida girls accused of bullying Rebecca Sedwick before she died by suicide. Were the police overzealous, or did the system work as it should, bringing about accountability even though stopping short of a criminal trial?

To Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who originally publicized the charges, the outcome is satisfactory because the girls will receive 鈥渢he services they need,鈥� he said Thursday. "Our goal is that these kids never bully anyone again, never torment anyone again."

To attorney Jose Baez, representing the 12-year-old accused (who has since turned 13), the juvenile charge of third-degree felony stalking against his client was 鈥渞eckless,鈥� and there was 鈥渮ero evidence having to do with my client that would rise to the level of a criminal act,鈥� he said at a news conference Thursday. He added that Sheriff Judd owed the girl an apology and that a lawsuit against him was a possibility.

The case exemplifies the complexities of responding to youth bullying in an effective, responsible way.

The sheriff may have been doing his best to respond to the community鈥檚 desire to see someone doing something in response to the cruel treatment of Rebecca, but there are downsides to his approach, various experts on bullying and juvenile justice say.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 viable that ... the threat of serious formal punishment will act as deterrent.... Kids don鈥檛 consider the long-term consequences.... They don鈥檛 think they鈥檒l get caught and punished,鈥� says Justin Patchin, codirector of the Cyberbullying Research Center.

But he says he understands Judd鈥檚 desire to do something.听鈥�The behavior needed to be addressed earlier 鈥� in homes, in schools, and in communities, and it just didn鈥檛 [happen]. That was a missed opportunity for a lot of people along the way.鈥�

In the wake of the public accusations against the girls, whose identities were revealed in some news stories, they鈥檝e already faced one type of punishment: public vilification that some say is unwarranted and dangerous.

鈥淲e jump right away when there鈥檚 a death to criminalizing the other kids鈥� behaviors, and that should not have happened so quickly until all the facts had come in,鈥� says Barbara Coloroso, an author on bullying and CEO of Kids Are Worth It! in Littleton, Colo. The girls have not been convicted of any crime, but 鈥減eople are issuing death threats against them on the Internet,鈥� she says.

Among the hateful comments were those in response to an October about the arrest of the girls. One commenter implied they should be killed and referred to them as 鈥渄egenerates.鈥�

鈥淭he two girls involved have been demonized online,鈥� Mr. Patchin says. 鈥淭heir behaviors were wrong, were hurtful, were inappropriate, but does that make it right for society as a whole to publicly condemn them in the way that we did? I don鈥檛 think so.鈥�

Katelyn Roman, the now-13-year-old, appeared on NBC's "Today" show with her parents Thursday. The family said she did not do what she was accused of. When asked if she felt she had done anything wrong, she said, "No." When asked what she learned from the incident, she said, "When you have a chance, stand up to bullies."

After initially blaming the girls for driving Rebecca to kill herself, Judd stepped back and acknowledged later that she had a troubled home life and that bullying was probably only one contributing factor. He also said he鈥檇 like to see laws allowing schools to mandate counseling or anger management so that bullying cases don鈥檛 get to the point of criminalizing children, according to CBS News.

But the damage is already done, some say. The legal system 鈥渟hould never have released the names and photos of the girls.... This is contrary to all principles of juvenile justice. These are kids. They make mistakes. They should not have to live with a lifetime of public shame because of this,鈥� writes Nancy Willard, director of Embrace Civility in the Digital Age, in an e-mail to the Monitor.

What鈥檚 difficult to judge, however, is whether the prosecutor dropped charges because of lack of evidence or for other common reasons, such as a need to winnow down the caseload, says Jesse Weins, a criminal justice professor at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D. It may be that the accused are receiving counseling and the prosecutor thinks that鈥檚 sufficient, or it may even be that the prosecutor believes 鈥渢he perpetrators have already received bigger forms of punishment than the system would provide,鈥� because of how publicly they鈥檝e been shamed, he says.

Increasingly, communities are resorting to a more 鈥渞estorative justice鈥� approach to juvenile crimes, Professor Weins notes, which many antibullying experts favor.

Restorative justice needs to be a way of 鈥渢ruly holding [bullies] accountable鈥� and includes bullies 鈥渙wning what they鈥檝e done and trying to repair it,鈥� Ms. Coloroso says. If they鈥檝e cyberbullied, for instance, they could be asked to hire Internet 鈥渟crubbers鈥� to remove the material, and then they could have digital media restrictions or formal monitoring for a time.

Schools, parents, and Internet service providers all have to play a role in shutting down bullying, Coloroso says. 鈥淭his should be a wake-up call for all of us.... What can each one of us do ... to stop it sooner, before a young girl feels there鈥檚 nothing left to do and the young girls who are targeting her get caught in a web that they can鈥檛 get themselves out of?鈥�

鈥� Associated Press material was used in this report.