Juveniles in the United States have seemingly lost their juvenile status. Our courts have prosecuted juveniles as adults at alarming levels. While these kids have often committed alarming, if not heinous, acts they, however, are still children. The human brain does not reach full maturity until the age of 25. With that in mind, how can we accuse these children of committing an adult act when they are in no way developed adults? These kids do not have the reasoning that grown adults possess, therefore they are extremely more susceptible to peer pressure, emotional trauma, and rash decision making. Oftentimes these children commit crimes because of the way they are treated at home or in school. We need to take into account that the parents of these kids may be equally, if not more, to blame.
Children in adult prisons are subject to conditions and a lifestyle that children should not be exposed to. They are given little to no chance to develop into a normal adult. Putting a child in adult prison for a life sentence also steals a life away from a child who could have realized his wrongs as he or she matured, but instead he or she will never be given a second chance. Juveniles should be allowed to receive education, and rehabilitation programs so that the decisions made when they were young and immature do not ruin their chance at a better life. This is the reason that these children commit suicide at such higher levels than those in juvenile detention centers. These children do not deserve to be punished as adults when they have none of the rights and privileges that an adult in the United States possesses.
Some questions to give some thought to:
- Should the United States court systems be allowed to punish juveniles as adults?
- With the current policy in which juveniles are allowed to be prosecuted as adults, where is the line drawn? What offenses should be considered adult offenses deserving of an adult prison?
- How can we better the lives of juveniles in adult prisons so that they are not so drawn to the prospect of suicide or so susceptible to the violence and sexual assault occurring in prisons?
I really don't think juveniles should be tried or punished as adults. I honestly have no idea how anyone started justifying that to be honest? Or if it has, y'know, a lot of precedent, how anyone has continued to justify it in modernity.
ReplyDeleteI really think the whole prison system is unfit for just about anybody. It's good that we have a juvenile court system with the mentality of rehabilitation, but punishment has proven so ineffective at reducing crime, and it's even more ridiculous to impose that on children.
I don't think that juveniles should be held accountable as adults, they are not fully developed. I think that it is ridiculous that children as young as 7 can be tried as adults, at the age of 7 there is now way that they are developed to fully understand the right and the wrong. I think that if it is going to be legal the cutoff for the age should be raised to 15-16, not 7. Crimes that involve hurting others should be adult offenses. Murder is one of the only acceptations that I could really see to punishing a kid for at that standard, yet, maybe they should focus more on rehabilitation than punishment without ramifications. When a child is locked up their childhood is gone and they are not living a normal child life so I think that education needs to be continued and there need to be classes and activities that are created for the youth serving time. Granted it is a prison I think that you could have a system more designed for the children serving time, by teaching them that they can get better and go on to live a normal life if they change their ways.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though juveniles should in some cases be tried as adults. Provided the crime is heinous enough to warrant the question than it should be a possibility for a juvenile to be tried as an adult. I am aware that the brain does not finish its development until much later in life (around 25yrs old), however the cognitive level is there for many of these kids. I believe that allowing all juveniles to be treated as only juveniles in the court system fails to push these kids for the wrong they have done and in some cases simply lets them off the hook with a slap on the wrist. For me, any charge of murder or forcible rape should be tried in a criminal court. Along with this i do believe high repetition of crimes and crimes with high levels of heinousness should be looked into in criminal court. When it comes down to it, there are certain crimes that should not be discounted simply due to the age of the victim and provided the cognitive ability to understand the crime is existent within the victim, I believe the legal system has every right to pursue charges in an adult (criminal) court.
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ReplyDeleteI believe the U.S court system should be allowed to punish juveniles as adults to an extent. I believe if it depends on the case such as for murder or rape, they should but minor charges not so much.
ReplyDeleteThe major charges I believe no matter the gender or age should be taken into considerations when we talk about murder or rape. But their age should be taken into consideration when they are talking about a case when they robbed a store. A juvenile and an adult cannot be trialed the same because an adult is aware of what he is doing and knows the clear difference between right and wrong and the consequences. In comparison to a juvenile who may not be fully developed.
I feel like they can be held in different cells and not together in the adults. But besides that they should be integrated to see.
I agree with Devon and Jami in that children should be tried as adults only in the most heinous of offenses, such as multiple murder or rape. With that said, it's extremely difficult to actually quantify the line at which juveniles can be tried as adults, making it an extremely flawed system. I think that juveniles tried as adults should still serve in juvenile prisons until they turn eighteen, at which point they can then be transferred to a regular facility where they can serve the remainder of their sentence.
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