I do think that courts should consider other factors, like the severity of the crime, the juvenile's previous criminal record and their upbringing, before determining if they should be tried as an adult. But, it should still be the goal of the court system to attempt to educate juveniles, rather than throwing in the towel at the first sign of violence, and sending them to prison with even more violent, hardened criminals. Some say that children who commit adult crimes such as murder should be tried as adults. Then you should be tried as an adult no matter your age. If you take a life from one you should suffer the same punishment if your 15 or if your 43.
It’s sad to think that these juveniles could turn their life around and possibly be model citizens once back out in the population. My thoughts are that the youth today facing criminal offenses need to be evaluated differently from adults in our courts and the appropriate laws should treat them accordingly. The crimes of juveniles need to be more closely evaluated while considering their age, family life, and other factors before a fair punishment can be agreed upon. Something I read while researching this topic was about a young woman Sarah Kruzan. At age 16 she shot and killed her pimp who had sexually and physically abused her.
The youths that are being tried in the adult courts should be offered to better themselves as for they are not fully developed at the ages under eighteen. Punishing a teen by taking away their rights for life is not helping the betterment of society. Another person in prison means more local taxes for another set of clothing, more food, and occasionally, more space to be built. A psychologist could benefit from these children who caused trouble, especially if the trouble was un intentional. Juveniles have greater possibility than adults to make a change in their lives with the right help with counseling and rehabilitation.
The legal system makes children understand that their actions have consequences keeping them from doing it again. They don’t get special treatment just because of their age. When a child turns 18 they are no longer considered a child, they are considered as adults. After 18 they should receive the same punishments as adults, When punishments are put on children who commit crimes t might lower the crime ratings. Others will hopefully learn from those mistakes and not do it.
Should Youthful Offenders Be Tried As Adults? Ervin Frankli March 28, 2012 SWK 501: Policy II Alabama A&M University History of Juvenile Justice System: “Many people believe juvenile courts were invented to "go easy" on young criminals. The actual reasons are more complicated. The 19th Century reformers who advocated the establishment of juvenile courts were just as interested in crime control as they were in social work. Admittedly, some reformers were motivated by a desire to save growing numbers of poor and homeless children from the streets of America’s cities.
Some juvenile inmates come from broken homes, divorced families, deadbeat parents and are just trying to survive. Juvenile prisons need to be different from adult prisons, you can’t treat kids like adults, especially the younger juveniles. They need a role model to influence them positively, punishment but an emphasis on hope a better life more than anything. Adults still need hope, but if you’re still committing crime as an adult you’re either in the wrong place at the wrong
[2][3] Arrested a month before his 16th birthday,[4] he was tried and convicted as a minor. By law, this meant that he would be released and his criminal records sealed as soon as he turned 21. [2][5] Price bragged that he would "make history" when he was released. [2] The case led to changes in state law to allow juveniles to be tried as adults for serious crimes, but these could not be applied retroactively to Price. [3] Due to the brutality of his crimes and the opinion of state psychologists that he
To some extent I agree with the idea that juveniles should be tried as an adult when they commit murder or any other heinous crime resulting in the life of another person; however, I disagree that all juveniles should be tried as adults due to the fact that their brains aren’t fully developed in the sense that the crimes they may commit are out of spontaneous action. Proposition 21 talks a lot about adolescents and whether it is right to try them as adults. In the case of many teens they commit crimes that may or may not be worth the adult punishment. In my opinion, it should only be okay to punish them as adults when they kill someone. Proposition 21 states that juveniles 14 or older charged with murder or any specified sex offenses require
Nevertheless, when the wholesale transfer to criminal court of various classes of juvenile offenders that are defined solely by the charged offense starts to become the rule rather than the exception, we need to stop and take stock of what we are doing. I say this because this represents a fundamental challenge to the developmental premise on which the juvenile court was founded that adolescents and adults are different in ways that warrant their differential treatment under the law. Even though juveniles have different psychological thoughts they should still be trialed as adults because they are considered delinquents and I believe if they commit the crimes they should be trialed as any other adult would be. Juveniles sometimes
The recidivism happens because those juveniles do not feel like the fit in the community after they leave the juvenile correctional centers. The society views them with suspicion; they are thought to be criminal because of their past behavior. They therefore find a way of surviving and this leads them back to their old groups and then back to crime again and therefore the trend recurs (Parks, 2007). Deficiencies in the Evidence