Should Juveniles Be Tried As An Adult Or Not? Juveniles should not be tried as an adult if they are not an adult. Over 250,000 youth are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year across the United States (www.campaignforyouthjustice.org). Between 1990 and 2010, the number of juveniles in adult jails increased by practically 230 percent (http://www.genfkd.org/). 10,000 juveniles are stored in adult jails and prisons. Most of those youths are charged with nonviolent offenses but yet spends most of their lives in jail. According to the article “Campaign for youth justice” these youths receive an adult criminal record which denies them access to employment and educational possibility. These youth are forced to sit in jail for …show more content…
They begin to feel like there isn’t anything else to really do so when they get out, they act even worse and are more likely to be put right back in the system. Criminal Justice experts believe that youth who go through the juvenile justice system are less likely to commit crimes when they get out than youth who go through the adult system (www.msnbc.com) . Some might argue that “if kids are making adult crimes they should do adult time because they should know right from wrong” (www.teenink.com). As teens character and personalities change, teens are more receptive to influence and growth. Way better than adults, teens can unlearn bad behavior, display growth, and learn to make better responsible choices. Jessica Wilde believes “children who commit a serious crime, should be given the same punishment as everyone else” she stated in her article “Juvenile criminals must be tried as adult”. Teens are far from being flawless and no they are not guiltless but it’s also apart of the brain development system. Teenager brains expands throughout their 20s. As the cognitive mastery refine, so does instinct control. As an outcome, teens are frequently unable to emphasis on the …show more content…
Since 2005, 29 states and Washington, D.C. have created laws to make it more tough to indict and sentence juveniles as adults, involving lifting the age required for adult prosecution and initiating other possibilities to detention (http://www.genfkd.org/). In New York they started applying reforms in 2011, during a period of budget battles and many investigations by the Justice Department into the lacking that occurs in juvenile facilities (www.npr.org). The new task force generated a program to keep young offenders in local juvenile facilities in addition to, concentrating on their education, mental health and significance abuse issues. Since then, the number of detained youth has declined by 45 percent (www.npr.org). Texas passed laws to retain juveniles in facilities near home as well as a reduce in prosecution for inconsequential offenses by students in school. The number of children in adult court then decreased by 83 percent (www.texasstandard.org). These changes won’t occur overnight but we do need to start somewhere so we can keep these young juveniles safe and give them another chance at life. These youth don’t deserve to die at a young age due to suicide and don't deserve to get
The central idea of this article is to show the two sides of the prompt ¨should Juveniles be tried as adults?¨ This article uses a lot of stories to help back herself up in her answer. The authority with the author/creator is trustworthy because, Jessica Reaves works for a trustworthy place ¨Time¨ The difficult part of trusting the accuracy of the article is, it was published in 2001 which could have a lot of changes in roughly 15 or 16 years. The article uses examples of juvenile violence to prove the point that kids are treated differently from adults. Readers can use this article to prove that kids are incapable of understanding the consequences of their action.
The quagmire of placing juveniles in adult facilities is the risk factors juveniles may experience while incarcerated. Being that juveniles are young and smaller to the adult offenders, they may be seen as a prey or easy target for rape, assault, mental issues which eventually leads to suicide. We must keep in mind that juveniles are youth meaning they are still a child, not an adult and should not be exposed to adult incarceration environment. Although it is cost saving to place juveniles and adults under one facility, it is unethical because they are not built and yet mentally ready and prepared to experience adult facilities. Alternative strategies are available to assist juvenile detainees such as healthcare, education, recreation, and work experience. The Juvenile Court Act of 1899 gave leniency to youth under the age of 16. Placing youth detainees with adult offenders will result in the reduction of rehabilitation services for youth, while increasing the rate of being a victim as a potential prey o...
In today's society juveniles are being tried in adult courts, given the death penalty, and sent to prison. Should fourteen-year olds accused of murder or rape automatically be tried as adults? Should six-teen year olds and seven-teen year olds tried in adult courts be forced to serve time in adult prisons, where they are more likely to be sexually assaulted and to become repeat offenders. How much discretion should a judge have in deciding the fate of a juvenile accused of a crime - serious, violent, or otherwise? The juvenile crime rate that was so alarming a few years ago has begun to fall - juvenile felony arrest rates in California have declined by more than forty percent in the last twenty years. While California's juvenile population rose by a half a million since the middle and late 1970's, juveniles made up less than fifth-teen percent of California's felony arrests in 1998, compared to thirty percent in 1978; according to the Justice Policy Institute. The juvenile arrests have dropped back, even as the population of kids between ages of ten and eight-teen has continued to grow, and the number of kids confined in the California Youth Authority (CYA) has fallen. With all the progress our society has made in cutting back in juvenile crimes there is still a very serious problem. But if locking kids up is the best way to address it, how do we explain a drop in crime when there are more teens in California and fewer in custody? First we must look at the economy around us. With so many job opportunities available more and more teenagers find honest ways to keep busy and make money. Our generation has a brighter future than the generation a decade ago. Next we look at successful crime prevention efforts: after-school programs, mentoring, teen outreach programs, truancy abatement, anti-gang programs, family resource centers. There is evidence that these programs are beginning to pay off. Sending more, and younger teens through the adult court system has been a trend across the country in reaction to crimes, such as school shootings and violent rapes. Yet evidence shows that treating youth as adults does not reduce crime. In Florida, where probability wise more kids are tried as adults then in any other state, studies found that youth sent through the adult court system are twice as likely to commit more crimes when they're release...
Marjie Lundstrom in her article Kids are Kids until they commit crimes says “research suggests that adolescents squeezed through the adult system are more likely to come out as violent career criminals than similar kids handled on the juvenile side”. This means if they do a crime and don’t get punished they’ll come out as violent career criminals then other kids that get punished because the kids that get punished will have learned their lesson that there are consequences for their violent negative behavior. This is true because many juvenile offenders are
In the last 42 years little to no changes have been made to correct the standards that govern punitive measures towards juvenile delinquency. Today juvenile law is governed by state and many states have enacted a juvenile code. However, in numerous cases, juveniles are transferred to adult court when juvenile courts waive or relinquish jurisdiction. Adolescents should not be tried in the adult court system or sentenced to adult penitentiary's on account of: teen brains are not mature which causes a lack of understanding towards the system, incarceration in an adult facility increases juvenile crime, and children that are sentenced to adult prison are vulnerable to abuse and rape.
There has always been controversies as to whether juvenile criminals should be tried as adults or not. Over the years more and more teenagers have been involved in committing crimes. In some cases the juries have been too rough on the teens. Trying teens as adults can have a both positive and negative views. For example, teens that are detained can provide information about other crimes, can have an impact in social conditions, and serve as experience; however, it can be negative because teens are still not mature enough for that experience, they are exposed to adult criminals; and they will lose out on getting an education.
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.
A deep look into juveniles in adult prisons. Touch bases on several smaller issues that contribute to juveniles being in and effects of adult prisons. The United States Bureau of Prisons handles two hundred and thirty-nine juveniles and their average age is seventeen. Execution of juveniles, The United States is one of only six countries to execute juveniles. There are sixty-eight juveniles sitting on death row for crimes committed as juveniles. Forty-three of those inmates are minorities. People, who are too young to vote, drink alcohol, or drive are held to the same standard of responsibility as adults. In prisons, they argue that the juveniles become targets of older, more hardened criminals. Brian Stevenson, Director of the Alabama Capital Resource Center said, “We have totally given up in the idea of reform of rehabilitation for the very young. We are basically saying we will throw those kids away. Leading To Prison Juvenile Justice Bulletin Report shows that two-thirds of juveniles apprehended for violent offenses were released or put on probation. Only slightly more than one-third of youths charged with homicide was transferred to adult criminal court. Little more than one out of every one hundred New York youths arrested for muggings, beatings, rape and murder ended up in a correctional institution. Another report showed a delinquent boy has to be arrested on average thirteen times before the court will act more restrictive than probation. Laws began changing as early as 1978 in New York to try juveniles over 12 who commit violent crimes as adults did. However, even since the laws changed only twenty percent of serious offenders served any time. The decision of whether to waive a juven...
Incarceration leads to poor mental health for adolescents and it decreases the ability for youth to complete school and get a job. Youth who are incarcerated are at a higher risk for being harmed while incarcerated. Often overcrowded and understaffed, juvenile detention centers generate neglect and violence.
Today?s court system is left with many difficult decisions. One of the most controversial being whether to try juveniles as adults or not. With the number of children in adult prisons and jails rising rapidly, questions are being asked as to why children have been committing such heinous crimes and how will they be stopped. The fact of the matter is that it is not always the children's fault for their poor choices and actions; they are merely a victim of their environment or their parents. Another question asked is how young is too young. Children who are too young to see an R rated film unaccompanied are being sent to adult prisons. The only boundaries that seem to matter when it comes to being an adult are laws that restrain kids from things such as alcohol, pornography, and other materials seen as unethical. Children that are sent to adult prison are going to be subjected to even more unprincipled ideas and scenes. When children can be sent to jail for something as minor as a smash and grab burglary, the judicial system has errors. The laws that send juveniles to adult prisons are inhumane, immoral, and unjust. Kids are often incompetent, which leads to unfair trials. Adult prisons are also very dangerous for minors, and in many cases this leads to more juvenile crimes.
That’s why we don’t permit 15-year-olds to drink, drive, vote or join the military” (qtd. in Billitteri). There is adolescent-development research according to Hambrick, J. and Ellem, J that has shown “children do not possess the same capacity as adults to think thru the consequences of their behaviors, control their responses or avoid peer pressure” (qtd. in Lyons). There are some very good points made in the argument against sentencing youth as adults but I still have a hard time agreeing with peer pressure or impulse control as a reason to be held in a juvenile center for less than a few years for murder. Ryan, L. uses the example of a report released by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention on “Juvenile Transfer Laws : An Effective Deterrent to Delinquency?” This report found that prosecuting youths as adults has little or no effect on juvenile crime.” She uses this information and backs it up with the report showing “youths prosecuted as adults are more likely to re-offend than youths handled in the juvenile justice system” (qtd. in Katel). This is definitely a new perspective, but I still stand with my first take on the subject. “We know young people can commit serious crimes, and the consequences are no less tragic” (qtd in
For example, the court has already struck down the death penalty and the life in prison without parole for juveniles or for young offenders convicted of non-homicide. According to the article, “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life In Prison,” Paul Garinger states that “Brain imaging studies reveal that the regions of the adolescent brain that are responsible for controlling thoughts, actions, and emotions are not fully developed. They can not be held to the same standards when they commit terrible crimes.” If this is true, there is no reason to treat juveniles as adults.
Punishing youth offenders as adults can rewire their brain to become harsher criminals than before incarceration. Trying Juvenile Criminals as Adults Throughout adolescence many physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes occur. This time is a transition from
Should teens be convicted as adults? Teens are being trialed as an adult by a crime they are committing. Juveniles should be convicted as an adults for violent crimes because once you commit a crime you are showing you are a irresponsible person by making bad choices and should be trial as adults. Teens are being sentenced as a full adult by committing a crime on what they see around them. The article “Kids are Kids until they Commit Crime” states, “On March 9, Lionel Tate who was twelve when he savagely beat to death a six year old girl will likely learn if he must spend life in prison after his lawyer unsuccessfully tried to put pro wrestling on trial.”
Furthermore, according to staff attorney Nicole Scialabba, “statistics compiled from 15 states revealed that juveniles prosecuted in adult court and released from state prisons were rearrested 82 percent of the time, while their adult counterparts were rearrested 16 percent less. Meanwhile, studies have shown that juveniles prosecuted in juvenile court benefit from the services made available to them through that process” (17). It is important to recognize the future implications of adult punishments on juveniles. Because statistically speaking, they promote recurring criminality. Once placed in adult prisons, particularly vulnerable adolescents take the next steps of their developmental journey in an environment that does not promote physical or emotional health.