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Adolescence and emerging adulthood chapter 12
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On March 4th, 1998, two boys named Mitchell Johnson, thirteen years old, and Andrew Golden, eleven years old, shot down 15 students at their middle school. Five of the fifteen died and the remaining ten were wounded. When the two boys were convicted, they only spent time in juvenile detention, and were released into the public once they turned eighteen, due to Arkansas state law, rather than upwards of life in prison for premeditated murder and assault, because they were not adults. Children that are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, and have their own judgment should most definitely be tried as adults for violent crimes. Instead, they, at most, get thrown in juvenile detention for a few years before being released, any fines are put on their parents, and they do not get taught the lesson they need or deserve. Some people say that children should be tried as children, but that …show more content…
Being a child, they may not be able to pay the fine immediately, but it should be filed under their name and once they turn sixteen, the punishment should go up given that that they do not pay it. The parents are not the ones that committed the crime, and even if they are responsible for teaching a kid what to, and not to, do, the kid will not listen to the parent 100 percent of the time. If a child commits a crime, most of the time it was their will, and they deserve to pay for it themselves. Children should definitely be tried as an adult and punished as an adult for crimes, or otherwise, nothing is stopping them from doing it again. Being put in “Juvie” until you are eighteen because you violently killed someone as a fifteen year old is absolutely unacceptable and not near harsh enough of a punishment, The living conditions are better there than in some of their own homes! Nothing is stopping them from doing the same thing
Within the last five years, violent offenses by children have increased 68 percent, crimes such as: murder, rape, assault, and robbery. Honestly, with these figures, it is not surprising at all that the Juveniles Courts focus less on the children in danger, and focus more on dangerous children. This in fact is most likely the underlying reasoning behind juveniles being tried as adults by imposing harsher and stiffer sentences. However, these policies fail to recognize the developmental differences between young people and
Many people say that the systems first priority should be to protect the public from the juvenile criminals that are a danger to others. Once the juveniles enter the system there is however, arguments on what should be done with them. Especially for those deemed too dangerous to be released back to their parents. Some want them locked away for as long as possible without rehabilitation, thinking that it will halt their criminal actions. One way to do this they argue would be to send them into an adult court. This has been a large way to reform the juvenile system, by lowering the age limits. I believe in certain cases this is the best method for unforgiving juveniles convicted of murder, as in the case of Ronald Duncan, who got away with a much lesser sentence due to his age. However another juvenile, Geri Vance, was old enough to be sent into the adult court, which caused him t...
Heinous crimes are considered brutal and common among adults who commit these crimes, but among children with a young age, it is something that is now being counted for an adult trial and punishable with life sentencing. Although some people agree with this decision being made by judges, It is my foremost belief that juveniles don’t deserve to be given life sentencing without being given a chance at rehabilitation. If this goes on there’s no point in even having a juvenile system if children are not being rehabilitated and just being sent off to prison for the rest of their lives and having no chance getting an education or future. Gail Garinger’s article “ juveniles Don’t deserve Life sentence”, written March 14, 2012 and published by New york Times, mentions that “ Nationwide, 79 adolescents have been sentenced to die in prison-a sentence not imposed on children anywhere else in the world. These children were told that they could never change and that no one cared what became of them. They were denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and left without help or hope”. I myself know what it’s like to be in a situation like that, and i also know that people are capable of changing even children when they are young and still growing.
Being charged with adult sentences is a very harsh punishment considering their age. Andrew Medina was fifteen when he got sentenced to life without parole because of a murder that he possibly did not commit. Officers also alleged that he was part of a gang and sent him to spend the rest of his life in a very strict prison. Trevor Jones also got sentenced to life without parole at the age of seventeen because of reckless manslaughter. Even though it was an accident, the victim’s death occurred while Trevor intended armed robbery and was accused of felony murder and will spend the rest of his life in prison. Jacob Ind was sentenced to life without parole. At the age of fifteen, he killed his mother and stepfather in order to put an end to the all kinds of abuse they were putting him through. The jury did not recognize the fact that it was primarily self-defense and accused him of first degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence. These are the cases of only three kids who got life without parole but there are so many more. These kids miss out on so many things in life because they will spend most of it locked in a cell. One accident or mistake can ruin their lives forever. That is why I think juveniles should be tried in juvenile
For example, a 12 year old kid, Lionel Tate, beat and killed a 6 year old girl to death because he was imitating professional wrestlers he saw on TV. Life in prison without parole or even going to an adult prison is extreme for a 12 year old. Many kids who make it out of the adult system end up worse than when they went in because they come out as hardened criminals. In another case, Nathaniel Brazill, who shot and killed his teacher at the age of 13. The crime was heinous, but the issue with convicting teenagers as adults is that during the teenage years, gray matter in the brain which supports all our thinking and emotions is purged at a rate of 1 to 2 percent a year. This occurs in the frontal lobe of our brain, which controls impulses, risk-taking, and self-control. Teenagers brains work differently and are not yet fully functioning compared to adult brains, evidence enough juveniles should not be tried as adults. However many prosecutors and the families of victims claim that teenagers know it is wrong to kill and the courts need to crack down on these cases in order to send a message to teenegaers across the US to not commit murder, or they could face life without parole. That may be true however, giving kids the message that they are not curable or worthy of a second chance sends out the wrong message and makes other countries in the world look down on the US. Also, they claim that many teenagers commit “thrill kills”, and nothing is wrong with them mentally. They also state that if brain development was the reason, that kids should kill at the same rate as adults. Their main argument is that the murders leave families in ruins and forever scar them when they lose a loved one. Once again many of these arguments are true, but kids are less mature and more vulnerable to peer pressure because their characters are still forming. Children
If children are too young to vote, drink alcohol, drive, and go watch rated R movies, why should they be tried as adults? It has always been an issue if whether an adolescent, under the age of eighteen, convicted of violent crimes should be tried as an adult or not. There are children as young as eleven years old that are being sent to adult prisons (Krikorian 2003). In such cases the jury does not take into consideration the fact that they are too young to stand trial, their brains are not fully developed, and that they are capable of rehabilitating.
Kids should be subjected to the measures of punishment that our judicial system is giving to them. Kids who show lots of enmity should be tried as adults. It is the only way to protect the innocent children. These kids know right from wrong, but they choose to do the wrong things and violence is wrong. As the laws have gotten stricter on discipline the kids have gotten wilder. When we let society tell us how to discipline our children then violent children is the result.
Although some would argue that juveniles undergo a series of brain development in which they lose brain cells that control their impulses, risk taking, and self-control (Thompson 46). However this lost during development does not excuse juvenile from their accountability, instead they should acquire special attention, proper nurturing and guidance during development in order to help them make better decisions. Thus teenagers accused of violent crimes should be tried and sentenced justly, regardless of age, to ensure the law's equality and educate juveniles regarding the potential severity of their actions' consequences. That is how we'll be able prevent future acts of violence and crimes from occurring in society.
“Morals are inherent from birth” (Wilde). Children, like adults, should know wrong from right. A child’s upbringing does impact them a little, but it’s in their nature to know right from wrong. One may say that a child is going to become hardened after they get out of jail, but it’s also the same for adults. Kids should be treated as adults since they can commit the same crimes as adults. “The juvenile court was created to handle juvenile offenders on the basis of their youth rather than their crimes” (cliffs notes). This is unfair because they base their decisions on how old the child is. What do they think this is, school? In school, they basically teach children based on their age, not on how much they know already. The court system shouldn’t be like school.
Is it fair for children as young as seven to spend their whole lives in prison? According to justice, Elena Kagan " Mandatory life without parole for a juvenile precludes consideration of his chronological age and its hallmark features". Although some of these children committed heinous crimes, they are just children and they lack maturity. Some of many reasons children should not be tried as adults are: the lack of mental capacity in adolescents, abusive homes, and peer pressure.
Juveniles deserve to be tried the same as adults when they commit certain crimes. The justice systems of America are becoming completely unjust and easy to break through. Juvenile courts haven’t always been known to the everyday person.
"Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time." -- David Grusin and Morgan Ames Much controversy exists on the question of whether a juvenile criminal should be punished to the same extent as an adult. Those who commit capital crimes, including adolescents, should be penalized according to the law. Age should not be a factor in the case of serious crimes.
once the minor has committed a violent crime, they are no longer a kid. The minor had the ability to know right from wrong, but he still chose to commit the heinous crime anyway. Choosing to commit this violent crime means that the minor chose to act as an adult and must be held accountable. Once the minor has made the decision to act as an adult, they must be treated as an adult. If we do not teach minors that what they did has consequences they will never learn. Arguments can be made that minors should not be treated as adults and while these arguments do have merit, they are not my beliefs. In my opinion, minors who commit violent crimes need to be tried as adults. Justice does not discriminate when it comes to age. Right is right, and wrong is wrong and the wrong should be punished equally.
There is a great deal of controversy over the trying and sentencing of juvenile offenders today. Many will argue that because the severity of Juvenile crimes has risen, the severity of its consequences should rise; however, no matter how serious the crime is, juvenile offenders tried as adults receive far worse than they deserve. The majority of Juveniles tried as adults are hardly given any form of human rights. Adult jails are not the environment children should have to experience, especially those sentenced for misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes. There are other solutions to reducing juvenile crime. It does not take adult court to straighten out kids on the wrong path. Most children are not even able to recognize that what they had done is wrong. There may be no perfect solution to reducing juvenile crime, but there are ways far more effective than adult trying and sentencing.
The first article; “Adult Crime; Adult Time.” by Linda J. Collier is about how the juvenile delinquents of the world should be thrown right in with the hardened criminals. She talks about the Jonesboro, Arkansas incident in which 11-year-old Andrew Golden and 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson, slaughtered their classmates as they ran from the school building. They pulled the fire alarm and began their assault with a barrage of bullets. In this particular situation, “they are still regarded by the law as children first and criminals second.”(Pg. 620). This has not been the first time that young children have committed such crimes, but the average of violence committed by children has risen by 60% since 1984. She claims that because of these statistics, we need to update the juvenile justice system. “In recent years many states have enacted changes in their juvenile crime laws and some have lowered the age at which a juvenile can be tried as an adult for certain violent crimes.” (Pg. 620) According to this author, she feels that it is a start in the right direction. She claims that she has represented children as a court appointed guardian and is humbled trying to help children out of their difficulties which often due to circumstances beyond their control. Still, for violent crimes, she feels that “children who knowingly engage in adult conduct and crimes should automatically be subject to adult rules and adult prison time.”