Punishment For Juveniles Essay

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Juvenile Justice (Punishment for Teenagers) To this day, juvenile justice is among the most controversial disputes throughout society; mainly because if an adolescent decides to the make the senseless decision of committing a vicious crime, and in result causes the death of an innocent person, brings the question whether or not to prosecute the juvenile as an adult. This question is at the center of the debate in regards to juvenile justice systems. According to the New York Times, There have been twenty-three states that prolonged the reach of their juvenile justice systems and passed laws that restrict the practice of automatically trying and punishing young offenders as adults, or keeping …show more content…

That being said, Stamps reconsiders, “However, he should not be prosecuted as an adult. The juvenile justice system is definitely more suitable to his needs. Let's not, for the sake of politics and political correctness, commit a greater sin by purposely destroying another life.” (Stamps 10) He believes that the perpetrator will confront justice through time in a juvenile correctional facility or treatment program, but we as society should not penalize the perpetrator by death. For more clarity, Rehabilitation refers to the reestablishment of a person’s good reputation (Oxford Dictionary of English); now how are juvenile offenders ever to return or amend to society after their crime, if they are not provided with a treatment program during their incarceration? Rachelle Marie Giguere a graduate student from Maryland University creates a thesis that examines the effects on juvenile delinquents being imprisoned. She states that “The findings suggest that incarceration does little to stop criminal paths or future contacts with the criminal justice system, but perhaps may even have harmful effects on youth.” …show more content…

The ratifications made on the juvenile justice system has “since the changes, the number of young people put directly into the adult system in Colorado has dropped by nearly 85 percent and that the rate of adult jailing of minors has fallen by 92 percent, with no increase in juvenile crime.” (Schwartz 8) That said gives an indication that perhaps the juvenile court system has to be examined in order to ultimately give a verdict on juvenile offenders. It is necessary to ensure the procedure for a delinquent’s prosecution for it determines the legitimacy of the system. Furthermore, the opportunities in which young offenders are sometimes being offered give them another chance to redeem themselves and prove to society of their reintegration to them. Kim Dvorchak, an executive director of a coalition (example in Schwartz’s article) claims that “We gave more kids an opportunity to have a second lease on life,” (Schwartz 9) she said. Her perception on how to prosecute young offenders is to render them and educate them in order to reconcile them to society, instead of destroying another life. Further in the text, Dvorchak makes the statement that the old system “put too much power in one place ─ the district attorneys” (Schwartz 12) She points out that now that there are new

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