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. Many argue that minors should be tried as adults because they know what they are doing, and since society is changing and it’s not how it used to be 10 years ago, minors should be tried as adults for the reason that they need to learn their lesson and realize the crime they did was wrong. But in a recent study examining the mental health of minors after being tried as adults says, “66% of youth processed in adult criminal court had at least one psychiatric disorder and 43% had two or more types of disorders”. Another study was done for adults and it said, “less than 35% of adult males have a psychiatric disorder compared to 64% of transferred Youth”. I compared the two studies, and you can see that minors being tried as an adult have more of a chance to at least one psychiatric disorder.
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.
Juveniles would not become repeated offenders. Some say they lack the maturity to understand the wrongness of comprehending their actions. Juveniles can be rehabilitated. The justice legal system, should they treat juvenile violent offenders as adults? My rebuttal: Yes, a heinous crime remains a heinous crime regardless who has committed it.
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.
Juvenile delinquents are defined as trouble makers, thugs, gangsters etc. But what people don’t know is why they are like this. Juvenile delinquents don’t always act out just because; they may have things in their past or present that they are trying to avoid. The things in the past or present they are trying to avoid may be more traumatic than us as adults see it. No matter how bad or good their life is kids or teens still have problems they face.
Despite the life-altering consequences of incarceration in an adult jail, relatively little attention have been given to these youth (Berlatsky, 2010). On the other hand, the few police departments that have realized the agony youths undergo separate the young offenders from adults. The problem with this mode is, isolation causes the youths to suffer from emotional and physiological problems. On the other hand, another group of people argue that regardless of the offenders age, violent and habitual offenders need to be locked in to protect the public safety and provide appropriate level of punishment(Andrea & Nakaya, 2005.). it is also argued that it right to use the space available in local county jail and state prisons as needed.
Juveniles are way too vulnerable to conduct in behavior that is too immature and irresponsible (Cornell, 2009). This suggests that juveniles are way too influenced by their immediate surroundings, giving them a lack of control and immature behavior. With in a society, juveniles are still trying to define who they are and understand themselves. On March 1, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court held: The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed (Cornell, 2009). Reference: FindLaw, (2009).
No one wants to convict an innocent man or woman of a crime they didn’t commit, so surely no one wants to convict a juvenile—without knowing. The process of the juvenile court system all depends on the seriousness of the offense/crime and whether the juveniles denies involvement or claims involvement. If the court finds that the juvenile is involved, or the juvenile claims involvement, the court will then decide the juveniles punishment based on best interest for the juvenile. For adults, the goal of the court is to punish the adult if found guilty of committing a crime. Juveniles, however, are much younger and may require a different approach.
Sex offenders should be supervised. To me, sex offenders are the lowest of the low when it comes to criminals. I believe that someone who violates children and/or rapes cannot be rehabilitated. The want to commit such heinous crimes is an addiction that is unstoppable. Given the chance, a child molester will commit the crime again.
Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults? The article “Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults” by Terry A. Maroney describes the relation of teens and the criminal system. She believes that teens are not adults and that they do not have the mentality or righteousness as an adult. Saying a child or teen is an adult does not make them one. She continues on to say that it is proven that teens are more likely to be influenced by peer pressure.