“By having them together, they form relationships.” When they are among so many different criminal associations with different behaviors this is more likely to increase the problem plus group experience tends to glamorize delinquency and drug use. The kids give each other more attention and comfort. They are in a competition of who can do the worst. Maia also said that, “Being put on probation, which involves more contact with misbehaving peers.”The source of one’s self esteem is how you stack up with your peer’s. Peer pressure worsens behavior.
The decisions can be far reaching and may have a significant impact on a juvenile, since their reasoning skills are lacking compared to that of an adult. Pros From a social standpoint, it can be an advantage to society to have such crimes, as example above, tried in criminal adult courts. It doesn’t appear that there was much in the way that the conviction of Lionel Tate served society since he was later released on appeal and given probation, however, he was later found guilty of violating his probation on a robbery charge and sentenced to prison (Aguayo, 2006). In other words, juveniles that commit such heinous crimes should be tried in adult’s court. These types of decisions to try juveniles in adult court serve society in terms of placing these individuals in custody for potential rehabilitation and introduction back into society.
The lawyers for the young criminals believed that their immature behaviors were triggered by semi-developed brains. In addition, Kim Thompson, a professor of law in New York University, supported that people have to think twice for juveniles’ crime cases. They believed that young criminals have possibility to live within society. It is possible that they were not involved in the whole processes of murder. Therefore, certain teen criminals deserve to have opportunities to rehab their inappropriate acts.
Youth that hang around people their age that are making bad choices and not abiding the law will involve in crimes with friends who are doing the same. Their environment can cause them to act out in negative ways, the lack of positive adults, abuse and neglect, and too much idle time and not enough planned activities. Children should not be tried as adults. “The United States Supreme Court has ruled that there are limitations on the punishment juveniles can receive even when they are tried in adult court. The law considers youth crimes to be less culpable than adult, therefore juvenile punishment should not be as severe as those available for adults, even for the exact same crime.” The punishment of a 14 year old, Arkansas teenager who wasn’t the triggerman at a video rental store that he and his robbed was fair.
A minor in general is someone under the age of 18. So the question at hand is should minors be tried as adults for crimes that they have committed? The answer is no (excluding murders)because in most cases minors are peer pressured into doing things that are not acceptable, and in some cases, can change as they grow and mature into adults. How about rehabilitation in a suitable facility can be a start, and then education and special activities can follow. According to (Zimring,1978) “The view is that young offenders deserved less severe punishment than adults justified the separate juvenile justice system and persisted, seemingly with broad public support, throughout most of the last century”.
Although President Clinton passed bills to push for harsher punishment for juveniles before it could go into effect, the juvenile crime rates dropped. After the rise of juvenile crimes in 1993, the juvenile crime rate dropped and has been on a decline ever since. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) received a new lease on life. One key initiative of the OJJDP was known as Balanced and Restorative Justice. This initiative placed major value in involving the victim in the rehabilitative process (Krisberg, 2008).
In the scholarly journal articles I have read, they take a look into the aspects on the Juvenile Justice field. This includes whether charging Juveniles as adults can really cause harm to them; or make them re-offend. Many researchers also research the many risks that could happen to a juvenile by being incarcerated in jail. They can be affected both mentally and physically. Although depending on there offense, they may not end up in jail, but end up in a juvenile detection faculty.
Simply placing juveniles in a prison-like setting and putting the facts of a substance dependence problem on the back burner is obviously not working. With a recidivism rate as high as 35%, jail time alone does not seem to be helping the juvenile drug offender. The program that I am proposing would give the individuals that were incarcerated a place to go after their school day, where constructive activities and counseling will take place, thus removing them from the violence and negativity of the streets, and replacing them with a healthy environment centered around keeping juveniles out of trouble and subsequently, jail. Substance use inevitably leads to reoffending (Chassin 3), and allowing drug offenders who have already been through the system to receive treatment and counseling for their possible drug addiction may decrease the number of individuals who will be brought back into the justice
President Mark Soler of the Washington, D.C., Youth Law Center points out that adolescents/children are required by law to be incarcerated separately from adults. However, the overwhelmed juvenile justice system lets the adult criminal justice system handle many youth offenders. This causes numerous negative effects for convicted juveniles. The law recognizes that adolescents/children are less equipped to make important decisions than adults are. Yet the law fails to distinguish between adolescents/children and adults when it comes to spending the rest of their lives in prison for crimes they have committed before their 18th birthday.
. .” - Judge LaDoris Cordell, Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California As the frequency and the seriousness of juvenile offending increases, our legislature has responded by making it easier for juvenile offenders to be tried as adults in the criminal justice system. This could be more harmful than helpful, as our juveniles get lost in a correctional system filled with hardened criminals, more opportunity to become repeat offenders, and less opportunity for rehabilitation. “If we could take every kid and surround the kid with full-time staffs of psychologists and child advocates and drug and alcohol counselors, then perhaps no kid should be in adult court. But the fact is, there are only a limited number of resources in the juvenile justice system, and they can only perform a limited number of functions.