ipl-logo

Children Should Not Be Tried As Adults Essay

1058 Words5 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. These cutoffs range from 7 to 14 years old. At any rate, the current situation is one that has sparked many moral and ethical beliefs to surface, resulting in debates that have yet to be resolved. Children who commit violent crimes should not be tried as adults, because proper educational services are typically not affordable, children are more susceptible to harming themselves …show more content…

Doing so has had countless adverse effects on the youth. Despite this, many prisons and facilities have turned a blind eye to these negative factors, and continue to plant them in the adult systems. Children should not have to be put in jails and prisons with adults because they have an increased chance of being raped, educational services are often too expensive, and their minds are inclined to becoming mentally unstable, which often leads to suicide. Solutions to these issues include lifting the ban that prevents grants to be awarded to inmates, and abolishing children from adult jail facilities altogether. Conversely, others may argue that these children deserve this treatment, children are becoming more intelligent and know right from wrong, and that these sentences will show others what can potentially happen. All things considered, this is a major issue that needs to be resolved, so children who commit these brutal crimes can better themselves as

Show More
Related
931 Words | 4 Pages

Teens are being tried as adults who commit felonies when we have a juvenile system. These 3 articles focus on Who, how, why, percent, and what should happen to these teens. The author Scott Anderson uses Greg Ousley as an example to advocate for teenagers who have committed a felony to be tried in the juvenile court system. Greg Ousley was instead tried as adult and was guilty of parricide, who is serving two 30 year sentences.

Read More
743 Words | 3 Pages

While charging young offenders as adults could potentially protect people on the outside, children who are housed in the same facility as adults is not a good idea nor a good mix. “I watched Joe, who laughed like a little boy, but I saw the lines in his face and even the emergence of a few prematurely gray hairs on his head. I realized even while I laughed, that his unhappy childhood had been followed by unhappy, imprisoned teenage years followed by unhappy incarceration through young adulthood. All of the sudden, it occurred to me what a miracle it was that he could still laugh.” (Stevenson 217-224) Children in adult prisons are prone to rape, suicide and assault than in juvenile detention centers according to studies on juvenile suicide in adult institutions and youth facilities in the 1980s.

Read More
1657 Words | 7 Pages

Society is too harsh on kids who commit crimes at a young age. These kids should not let one event from their childhood define their

Read More
839 Words | 4 Pages

It was also found that the harsher the penalty on a young person the greater the likelihood they would reoffend. The report suggested that a 17yr old child was still of an age that a lifetime of criminal activity could be avoided if there were not exposed to adult prisons and

Read More
1112 Words | 5 Pages

In addition, “..juvenile justice systems have already lowered the age at which children could be transferred to adult courts sooner” (Garinger 93). This may have occurred due to many kids being tried as adults with first-degree murder due to planned events. Convicting a child to adults signifies that a child has done things compared and similar to adult action. Once a child is tried as an adult they are isolated and do not receive the attention they need. Trying them as adults will only make matters worse due to their inability to interact with society once set free.

Read More
146 Words | 1 Pages

A plethora of children in the United States is being tried as an adult consequently, 3000 children nationwide are sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Children under the age of eighteen should not be tried as an adult in the interest of the physical and mental well-being of the child. Many questions should be asked by the court before considering trying a child as an adult. What was the nature and nurture of the accused child? Was the child being abused?

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever thought a about what actually goes on in Juvenile Detention Centers? How the young teens are treated by the guards and other cell mates? If you really think about it, most people in this generation don’t understand how bad it is getting. Being a teen doesn’t mean you are an adult and every teen makes mistakes. From the point of view of the young prisoners in those detention centers, when you get in trouble or you make a mistake in the “outside world” people get over it.

Read More
976 Words | 4 Pages

This is a criminal justice issue I have come to be passionate about and is inadequately addressed. Injustice is an imminent issue across all ages, however, I believe it especially salient for juveniles, as most of these adolescents are helpless and come from abusive environments where they have no one advocating on their behalf. I believe what infuriated me the most with the case of Erik and Nathan was how many mitigating circumstances were overlooked. While such circumstances do not excuse or justify the behavior of Erik or Nathan, especially, I do believe that the weight of these conditions are something in which deserves more attention to especially when deciding the fate of an individual who has not even fully developed mentally or physically yet. As a child we are clearly not held to the same standards as an adult and this is with a just cause.

Read More
494 Words | 2 Pages

If they are going to plan out a crime, then later go on to brag about it, there is something obviously wrong with them that is more than just being a minor. Every situation and case is different, and should be treated that way. If you send a child to prison expecting them to be able to change by themselves, you would be very wrong. They are at a stage where they are the most malleable; they take so much from the influences around them. So when you put them in a place filled with criminals, they’re going to change from children to

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

Those that commit a crime deserve a punishment. But as a child they also need a second chance and support. The kids are barely even living there life and for a mistake they will finish living it locked up in a cell. Juveniles shouldn’t be sentenced to life without parole, they deserve a chance to reflect on their actions and

Read More
659 Words | 3 Pages

In the United States prisons there are two thousand juveniles serving life without parole before, the age of eighteen. Only one of a few countries in the world allows children, to be sentenced to prison without release. And, the United States is one of them holding young teens accountable for their actions. But, there is accordance with age, stage development and how their cases should be dealt with in court. There are an estimated twenty-six percent of juveniles sentenced to prison for life convicted with felony murder.

Read More
849 Words | 4 Pages

The juvenile justice system has made numerous of ethical issues when managing juvenile offenders. The issue with the juvenile justice system is the laws and rules that govern it. It has led to years of controversial debate over the ethical dilemmas of the juvenile corrections system, and how they work with youth offenders. The number of minors entering the juvenile justice system is increasing every month. The reasons why the juvenile justice system faces ethical dilemmas is important and needs to be addressed: (1) a vast proportion of juveniles are being tried and prosecuted as adults; (2) the psychological maturation of the juvenile to fully comprehend the justice system; and (3) the factors that contribute to minorities being adjudicated in the juvenile justice system are more likely than White offenders.

Read More
438 Words | 2 Pages

This is supported by cases such as the James Bulger case. Many argue that the age should be increased due to the mistreatment and placement within an adult court of the killers. It has been analysed that in a civilised society should recognise that children who commit offenses require

Read More
1043 Words | 5 Pages

Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.

Read More
338 Words | 2 Pages

Prior to 1899 in the United States, children who committed a criminal offense were tried and punished as adults. Children were being institutionalized with adult criminals where they were picking up negative influences preparing them for a life of crime. Progressive and social change demanded that children be protected and educated instead and therefore a separate court system for juveniles was subsequently established to address this problem. It has since being argued that juvenile courts have abandoned their role to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents and should be abolished.

Read More

More about Children Should Not Be Tried As Adults Essay

Open Document