On Punishment And Teen Killers By Jenkins

Allison Hamerski
Ms. Gamache
ERWC Period 1
May 3, 2014
JLWOP
In the article On Punishment and Teen Killers by Jenkins, sadly brings to our attention that kids are sometimes responsible for unimaginable crimes, in 1990 in a suburban Chicago neighborhood a teenager murdered a women, her husband, and her unborn child, as she begged for the life of her unborn child he shot her and later reported to a close friend that it was a “thrill kill”, that he just simply wanted to see what it felt like to shoot someone. A major recent issue being debated is whether or not we have the right to sentence Juveniles who commit heinous crimes to life in adult penitentiaries without parole. I strongly believe and agree with the law that states adolescents who commit these heinous crimes should be tried as adults and sentenced as adults, however I don’t believe they should be sentenced to life without parole. I chose this position because I believe that these young adults in no way should be excused for their actions and need to face the severe consequences of their

There is no hope for these young adults, regardless of what they do to repent their actions or to change themselves for the better or maybe even come to realization with the depth of the crime they have committed, they will simply never get a second chance. Juvenile crime has already made obvious progress, “in the mid-1990s, violent juvenile crime declined, and it has continued to decline through the present day." (Garinger) This quote pulled from the article Juveniles Don't Deserve Life Sentences, really draws attention to the fact that a decline has been apparent over the years, that kids are not becoming more violent, they are actually becoming less violent. So it wouldn't make any sense to correspondingly raise the severity of