There has been a really big controversy on whether teens who have committed crimes, such as murderer, should be convicted and sentenced as an adult. Studies have shown that an estimate of 200,000 children in America are charged and put into prison and prosecuted as adults. People believe that except for extraordinary circumstances should children younger than 17 should be put into adult prisons for a great period of time. Teenagers are being tried as adults and sentenced to prison at alarming rates in the United States. These “children” are below the age of 17 meaning they are committing these crimes without actually meaning to cause as much damage like taking someone’s life therefore, I strongly believe that children and teenagers under the …show more content…
You want to throw the adult book at kids? Fine, says Democratic State Rep. Ron Wilson of Houston. Lower the voting age to fourteen. And really, in light of things, how wacky is that?” Lowering the voting age to 14 would be demoralizing to the United States because of the lack of knowledge these children would have. So, if something as simple as voting can only be done by adults, than children shouldn’t be tried as adults because crimes such as kids killing kids are much more serious than the age of voting. Lundstrom then goes on to explain “Today we are witness to criminal defendants-facing life sentences-who cannot shave, still play with firetrucks and love to act out scenes from television or videogames.” What Lundstrom says goes to show once again that children’s minds are not fully developed causing them to become confused with their emotions and acting upon them. This means committing serious crimes is out of their control. The crime itself shouldn’t go unpunished, but punishing a child to life is prison is erroneous, therefore, children should be put into rehabilitative program while being punished in a correct matter according to their age and their current state of mind to make the child understand right from