In a world where the line between childhood and adulthood is hazy, the question of when juveniles should be held responsible for their actions, and committing atrocious crimes, becomes increasingly significant. Teenagers that are committing heinous crimes are usually caused by poor environment and dejected living conditions, however, are given the maximum of a life sentence without the possibility of parole because there should be nothing so serious as to commit a heinous crime. While the juvenile system focuses on rehabilitation and education for the troubled youth, the adult system seeks punishment and retribution. In the juvenile system, the emphasis lies on guiding young offenders towards a positive change, while the adult system holds …show more content…
With the spiking crimes being committed by the youth, the right age a juvenile should be responsible for the heinous crimes they commit is from the age of 16-years-old and up. Although juvenile crime continues to remain a significant problem in modern society, the courts have been involved in regulating the prosecution of youths who commit heinous crimes. In the 1990s, violent crime spiked, and unfortunately, it is still an issue today. In the PBS Frontline Documentary, When Kids Get Life, the newscaster and narrator emphasize, “fifteen-year-old Jacob Ind and a classmate brutally killed his mother and stepfather.” For example, this was a heinous crime committed by two young teenagers who were later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and minimum 15-25 years. Since 2005, there have been changes in how the court handles juvenile heinous crimes. Rules and laws have been updated to better address the consequences based on the court case. It’s important to note that the focus on juveniles has shifted towards rehabilitation and providing opportunities for the youth to make positive …show more content…
Therefore she could maybe have another shot with Thomas who she never overcame her feelings for. Dustin and Brittany were both charged as adults. This simply supports the case that the ages of 16 and up should be held fully responsible because at the age of 16 an individual's brain is more developed to actually plan a heinous crime and know that there are serious consequences. In this case, Dustin clearly knew that killing someone could go bad for him as he became nervous when attempting to kill Christa the first time. There are heinous crimes that are committed by younger individuals, although these young individuals do not have the brain to fully plan a murder and know what actually killing a person does. With this being said, at the age of 16 someone is able to plan a crime without knowing the outcome, therefore should be held responsible for the crime committed. Some individuals may have different opinions about holding 16-year-olds fully responsible for their actions when it comes to committing heinous
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
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 actions. Although on the other hand I believe change is possible and that prison could be rehabilitating and that parole should be offered.
Thus, the shifting perceptions of the justice system has transformed what it means to be a child and an adult due to their pervasive, and punitive approaches to crime and delinquency. Although adolescents today enjoy many new freedoms and greater time to experiment, those that don’t conform to “normative behaviors” and engage in socially constructed definitions of delinquency, often end up under the firm hands of the juvenile justice system. Despite the creation of this phase in an adolescent’s life, the injustices within the adult justice system have breached into the juvenile system, thus, blurring the lines of what it means to be an adolescent in modern times. Thereby, the adolescent stage is constantly being manipulated to conform and match the social construction of crime and delinquency, and the rise in the practice of trying juveniles as adults within the court system and mandating life sentences is evidence of this
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
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.
Supreme Court ruling Graham v. Florida (2010) banned the use of life without parole for juveniles who committed non-homicide crimes, and Roper v. Simmons (2005) abolished the use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders. They both argued that these sentences violated the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. While these landmark cases made great strides for the rights of minors passing through the criminal justice system, they are just the first steps in creating a juvenile justice system that takes into consideration the vast differences between adolescents and adults. Using sociological (Butler, 2010) and legal (Harvard Law Review, 2010) documents, this essay will explicate why the next such step to be taken is entirely eliminating the use of the life without parole sentence for juveniles, regardless of the nature of the crime being charged.
What is important to understand in terms of the difference between the juvenile and adult system is that there is a level of dependency that is created between the two and the juvenile system focuses on how to help rather than in prison individuals at such a young age. However, it usually depends on the type of crimes that have been committed and what those crimes mean for the families and how they impact the greater society. The adult system distinguishes between dependence and delinquency mainly because there is a psychological transition that occurs with juveniles that is not always a predictor of a cyclical life of crime. However, if an adult is committed to the justice system, there can be a dependency of delinquency and a cycle of crime that is more likely to be sustained at that age and level of cognitive ability than in comparison to a juvenile. The reasoning behind this is important is that it is focused on maintaining a level of attention to the needs and capacity abilities of individuals living and working in different types of societies (Zinn et al., 2017).
References Glick, B. (1998) No Time to Play: Youthful Offenders in Adult Correctional Systems. American Correctional Association Wilkerson, I (1996) “Death Sentence at Sixteen Rekindles Debate on Justice for Juveniles.” New York Times, November Butts, J.A. and Snyder, H. (1997) “The Youngest Delinquents: Offenders Under the Age of 15,” Juvenile Justice Bulletin (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice) Lefevre, P.S., “Professor Grapples with Execution of Juveniles.” National Catholic Reporter Snyder, A. “Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders” (1997) National Center for Juvenile Justice
As minors commit violent crimes without being held accountable, they can grow up to be real criminals and they can be very dangerous. Without a solid foundation of what is right and wrong, these minors will grow up believing that their actions are the norm. For this reason, minors need to be held accountable. They need to be taught that they cannot get away with their crimes. In 2007, courts with juvenile jurisdiction handled an estimated 1.7 million delinquency cases. Delinquency cases include vandalism, shoplifting, robbery, and murder. These are just some of the crimes minors can commit. This was up by forty-four percent from 1985. If a minor grows up believing that crime is acceptable, they will repeat the pattern. Without interrupting the pattern and making them accountable, these minors will always have a twisted sense of right and wrong. A sense of what is right and wrong is important and can be learned at any age. Minors learn very young, what...
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.
The question of at what age a juvenile should be held criminally responsible for their actions, especially in cases of heinous crimes, has sparked a keen debate between legal experts and society. This has been an issue in our country for years because there are people who believe it is wrong to send a juvenile to prison for life without parole, but on the other hand, some people believe that it is right to put juveniles who commit heinous crimes behind bars for life. When it comes to the juvenile criminal system, the goal is to help children who find themselves getting into trouble to get back on track to be good citizens. Meanwhile, when it comes to the adult criminal system, the goal is to punish those who have committed crimes for their
As a society, we are faced with the difficult task of determining the appropriate punishment for individuals who commit serious crimes, especially when those individuals are teenagers. Sentencing teens as adults has become a topic of much debate, with some arguing that it is necessary to hold these individuals accountable for their actions. While it may seem harsh to treat teenagers as adults in the eyes of the law, there are compelling reasons why this practice is necessary. First and foremost, it is important to recognize that age does not excuse criminal behavior. Teenagers who commit violent crimes such as murder, rape, or armed robbery should not be let off the hook simply because of their age.
Juvenile crime is assessed and analyzed annually. Reports are published in order to offer Congress, state and local policymakers, educators, and juvenile justice professionals, the empirically based data and answers to frequently asked questions regarding the nature of crime and victimization. The report includes the system’s response to a variety of crime committed by minors. The juvenile justice system must react to juveniles in ways that protect the community, hold the offenders accountable, and enhance their ability to live productively and responsibly in the community (Sickmund, Melissa, & Puzzanchera, 2014). According to the Juvenile Offenders and Victims 2014 National Report, law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made 1.6 million arrests of youth under age 18 in 2010.
Suppose you are a parent of a wonderful child that you have trained to use a gun in an emergency. One day you give them some chores and that once wonderful child causes some trouble. Fuming, you storm out of the house to cool down. Once you’ve calmed down, you walk back towards your house. Meanwhile, your child, angry for having to do some chores, remembers his training and grabs his gun.
As some may read the phrase on the United States Supreme Court Building, questions about juvenile comeuppance are on the rise. One may ask, “Should an accused juvenile offender be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole or lethal injection?” People may argue retribution should be the same for all that commit heinous crimes, but in America’s modern judicial system, one punishment does not fit all criminals,especially juvenile offenders. As a people, Americans believe in justice and being tried fairly. When a crime committed by a minor is extreme enough to be transferred to an adult court, a judge waives all the