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.
Cases of juveniles being abused both physically and sexually as well as the suffering they endure in adult prisons have been rampant in the world today. Luck of proper facilities, information and law enforcement officers being left at their own discretion to decide on where to hold a minor when they are arrested have largely contributed to this problem. The question that everybody asks is how do you handle underage criminals who are a threat to public safety without exposing them to more harm? Statistics show that majority of the victims who commit suicides in jail are underage. As much as jails are meant to correct bad behaviors, there is a loophole when it comes to distinction between juvenile and adult jail.
In her essay, Why Juvenile Detention makes Teens Worse, Maia Szalavitz claims that those adolescent who entered the Juvenile justice system even briefly are more likely to be arrested later on in their adult life than those who have never been in the Juvenile system. Jennifer Gonnerman agrees. In her essay entitled, “The lost Boys of Tyron” she confirms the problem and suggests a solution. They both feel that that the Juvenile system is poor, but Szalavitz further believes that it has to do with the lack of positive direction in peer groups that cause kids to be worst. “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.
She continues on to say that it is proven that teens are more likely to be influenced by peer pressure. She also says that teen that are tried as adults and then released commit more crimes than those that are tried in juvenile courts. She also recalls a story of which a teen was sent to a prison for being tried as an adult and her family was ruined. She was mentally unstable and her family was falling apart after jail time. Most teens when they grow up, are easily influenced.
Violent behaviors among adolescents are dangerous and can ultimately lead to injury or even death. Moreover, adolescents and children who encounter or observe violent behaviors might undergo emotional trauma. It is noteworthy that the primary contributors and victims of violence are adolesents. This paper analyzes how prevalent delinquency is among adolescents in today’s society. Delinquncy is prevalent in adolescents, as the United States juvenile justice system has a large portion of inmates under the age of fifteen (Cloward, & Ohlin, 2013).
A troubled adolescent boy may show signs of behavioral changes that become unpredictable, and beyond the normal teenage issues. These unpredictable behaviors can lead to at risk behaviors, such as; violence, drugs and alcohol, harming one self, criminal acts, and skipping school. These repeated acts can lead the adolescent into a juvenile justice system putting them into a detention center. Intergroup conflicts are disagreements that occur within a group, usually emerging from objective differences in interest, controlling attitudes, and competition for desired resources. Many of times, these conflicts arise from discrimination that is directed towards others within the group.
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.
Hannah Mr. Elenbaas Advanced Composition 8 January 2014 Should Minors be Tried as Adults? There is much controversy over the issue of whether a child should be tried as an adult if convicted of a violent crime. Minors are starting to watch adults who are doing violent crimes, and they think it might be okay if they do it too. But does this mean we can punish minors like adults? Minors should not be tried as adults because they have not experienced the world like adults have, and they are not competent enough to go through or understand a trial.
Brittney Durr Mr. Bruse 5th period Juvenile Justice Essay I think yes and no about trying teens as adults. In my honest opinion, about trying teens as an adult should all depend on the crime, how old the kid is and in certain cases should check out backgrounds and family problems and how their childhood was and how it is going on right now because in some cases it can make a big difference. Sometimes kids get mixed up in the wrong crowed because of problems at home and those problems have been building up and causing some kids to be emotionally destroyed and which that could and have lead the childern to go down the wrong path, so what do you do when all those emotions come out in anger or wrose, do you get the kid the help he needs like getting him out of the bad invierment he/she is in or do you just give a court date and have the judge only look at him/her and that one crime and send them to prison for the rest of there lifes with no chance of prolly. To me i would have to look at the case and check the teens inverioment out just to see what is going on see what he does for his/her free time i would do anything to try and see if this child really ment to do what they did or if they did just out of anger and all that emtional hurt and much more and i
Juveniles who have been sexually abused may face problems with anger, impulse control, flashbacks, dissociative episodes, hopelessness, despair, and persistent distrust and withdrawal. Sexual abuse can increase tendencies toward criminal behavior and substance abuse in juveniles. Upon release from prison, victims of prison rape are more likely to become homeless or require government assistance due to the physical and psychological impacts of rape than are those who were not raped in