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Children Should Be Tried As Adults Essay

1042 Words5 Pages

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

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The article, “The Steep Costs of Keeping Juveniles in Adult Prisons” written by Jessica Lahey states, “Juveniles constitute 1,200 of the 1.5 million people housed in federal and state prisons in this country, and nearly 200,000 youth enter the adult criminal-justice system each year, most for non-violent crimes.” Minors should not be tried as adults because their brains are not developed, they may come from bad backgrounds, and they have their whole life ahead of them, and their life should not be determined by the mistakes they made as a child. Juveniles who are usually 14 or older who have committed serious crimes are tried as adults and are put into adult-state prisons. This is inhumane and unsafe for the child’s physical and mental health. One of the many reasons that minors should not be tried as adults is because their brains are not fully developed, so they cannot make good decisions until they are older, far into their twenties.

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The article Kids Are Kids--- Until They Commit Crimes written by Marjie Lundstrom in 2001 talks about why you shouldn’t try kids as adults unless the commit a serious crime, gives examples of kids who have been tried and found guilty of crimes and why it is a bad idea for them to go through adult prison because it might make them worse. This is an accurate statement because we shouldn’t just put them in the adult category but instead try to help them. In the article Democratic representative Ron Wilson feels that if prosecutors want to put kids in the adult system then they should “lower the voting age to fourteen”(Lundstrom). Wilson is trying to say that we might as well give kids all the rights of adults if we want to put them through the

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640 Words | 3 Pages

Some people believe that minors shouldn’t get life in prison because they are “just kids”, others believe that minors should get life in prison if needed to. I highly believe and agree with those who believe minors should get life in prison,because if they had the courage to commit a big serious crime then they should also have the courage to accept the consequences given to them. If you really think about it,if one doesn’t give them a serious consequences due to their action they’re going to think that it’s okay,that the court system will take it easy on them because just because they are “just children”, which it shouldn’t be like that. Criminals are criminals whether they are children or adults. Age is just a number but their crime is

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547 Words | 3 Pages

In many cases throughout the world, there has always and will be a controversial argument whether a “kid” should be trialed as an adult or not. The Supreme court has to take into action, whether the case was severe and how they will punish the teenager for whatever crime they committed. In, my opinion I highly agree that juveniles should be tried as adults no matter how old they are because they were aware of their actions and knew exactly what they were doing at the moment. Even, though some people might think otherwise, like they’re just ‘kids” and don’t know from right or wrong. Honestly, this is so, absurd because you can’t be that idiotic to not know what you’re doing.

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Sentencing juveniles to prison happens to be a very controversial topic today. Many people believe that juveniles should receive the same consequences as an adult criminal and a vast amount of people believe that juveniles should be given a second chance. I personally believe that a child should not be given the same consequences as an adult so the question I would like to pose to my audience is should juvenile offenders be offered the same consequences as adult offenders? Statistics show that across the nation at least 1,200 people are sentenced to life without parole for a crime they committed when they were under the age of 18. Majority of people will argue that this justified because if a child is given a second chance they will continue to commit crimes in the future.

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When people commit crimes, there should be disciplined no matter what. Juveniles need to learn that their behaviors have consequences. Why should kids be given any less of a punishment for committing the same crime? According to one author, “Taking a life is murder regardless of the age of the offender, and the penalties to be imposed must not discriminate. After all, the victim’s life will never be returned, and the family will permanently lose their loved one” (“7 Top Pros and Cons of Juveniles Being Tried As Adults”).

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801 Words | 4 Pages

In today’s society, the amount of crime is around 1,197,704 violent crimes committed worldwide (FBI). In the same year 53,500 crimes were committed by juveniles (National Center). The question that remains important over time is, should violent juvenile offenders be tried and sentenced as adults? If adolescents aren’t treated as adults in everyday life they should not be tried and sentenced as adults. The juvenile court system was established in the United States around two hundred years ago, the first court appearing in 1899 (Findlaw).

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834 Words | 4 Pages

When a Child kills another human being, are they considered an adult? In a court of law, the answer to this question may vary. Children, based on their crime, should be tried as adults when they are adults. They should be able to serve time in juvenile detention, and when they turn the age of 18 be re-evaluated to see where they will end up. Children are not developed enough to be held accountable as adults.

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431 Words | 2 Pages

Juveniles should be convicted as adults for violent crimes because it is not fair for juveniles to commit big crimes and get away with it so easily. If they want to act like adults, they should be treated. Some teens commit crimes and don't have a really good excuse on why they do it. In the article “On Punishment and Teen Killers” by Jennifer Jenkins she explains how the teenager that killed her sister, husband and her unborn child excuse of killing them was that he just wanted to “see what it would feel like to shoot someone”, which is no good excuse for what he did to this family. Another example from Jennifer's Jenkins article she states how “undeveloped brain” has nothing to do with teens committing these crimes.

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796 Words | 4 Pages

Many of them haven't matured in behavior quite yet. We do not want that to have an effect on who our president of the United States of America will be. The voting age should not be lowered to 16 because your brain isn't fully developed until your later years, the teens are too young, only being in their second year of high school, and it leads to arguments in school as well as not being able to focus on school work. To start off, kids should not be allowed to vote at 16 because they won't be able to focus on their school work as much.

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1979 Words | 8 Pages

In today’s world there are countless crimes committed every single day. “In 2015, there were 1.42 million total arrests, at a rate of 3,641 arrests per 100,000 residents” (State of California, Department of Justice). Grown adults are not the only people being arrested every year, there are also juveniles, children, being arrested every day. One topic of controversy today is whether or not juveniles who commit these crimes should be tried as adults in criminal court. There are many differences between the justice system for adults and the justice system for juveniles.

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1058 Words | 5 Pages

When children and teens commit a violent crime such as murder, courts convict them as adults. This means that children as young as eight have been tried as adults in court. Eventually, these convicts will be housed in jails with adults. Despite the federal law stating that juvenile and adult inmates must be separated, most states do not comply with these rules. Furthermore, a law that varies throughout the states is the age in which courts send the children to adult or juvenile prisons.

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964 Words | 4 Pages

Juvenile Justice Should juveniles get treated as adults that’s one of the biggest controversy in our nation now days, with many juveniles committing crimes that are inconceivable according to their age. Judges have the last word on how to treat this young people. Many people argue that “the teens that are under eighteen are only kids, they won’t count them as young adults, not until they commit crimes. And the bigger the crime, the more eager this people are to call them adults” (Lundstrom 87). This is why people can’t come to a decision as how these young people should be treated like.

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776 Words | 4 Pages

Teenagers are not perfect, and their irrational behavior can lead to poor decisions that could potentially be dangerous and unlawful. A debate has now occurred for many years that deals with the issue of sentencing teens that have committed serious crimes such as murder and robbery. Many people argue that if juveniles commit these crimes that their punishment should be equal to an adults punishment for serious crimes, but juveniles shouldn’t have to worry about their lives getting ruined. Most juveniles and teenagers do not have enough maturity to survive in the adult prison system, and recent brain development research shows us that teenagers brains are not even close to being finished developing. Therefore, teenagers and youth under the age of eighteen should

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