Essay On Juveniles In America

In the early 1900s, juvenile justice began to emerge in America, and many questioned if those under the age of 18 should be faced with the same punishments someone over the age of 18 received for the same crime. Later in the 1990s, many people had developed a fear of teenagers due to a “super-predator” myth, that teenagers were relentless and sought out to cause harm to others. Thus, the government tried to crack down on these sixteen to seventeen “hardened” criminals. Compared to other first world countries, America is on par with everyone else in terms of juvenile justice. However, that does not necessarily mean that the system is still outdated.

In the 2005 supreme court case of Roper v Simmons, the court ruled that sentencing someone under

The standard way of thinking about sentencing juveniles is if they are “old enough to do the crime then they are old enough to do the time.” However, this argument may fall short when we look at the rates of recidivism amongst juveniles who are sentenced as adults. According to a 2010 UCLA study, juveniles who were sentenced as adults and then later released had an 82% rearrest rate compared to their adult counterparts who had a 16% rearrest rate. (Scialabba) Based on this data, we can conclude that sentencing juveniles as adults has little effect on recidivism. A compilation of 6 different studies provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found that not only did juveniles have a higher recidivism rate, but they were also more likely to recidivate sooner and more often after being released (Scialabba). Recidivism shows the immaturity of juveniles and how sentencing them as adults will not rehabilitate them nor teach them a

According to a compiled study presented by the 2006 Justice Policy Institute reported that juveniles that are put in juvenile prisons “slows the process of aging out of delinquency, exacerbates any existing mental illness, increases odds of recidivism, reduces the chances of returning to school, and diminishes success in the labor market.” (Troilo). However, putting them in adult prisons not only increases their likelyhood of the outcomes previously stated, but they are statistically more likely to suffer from sexual abuse in the prison, have a 36% higher rate of suicide, and are more likely to be held in solitary confinement (Troilo). Juveniles who receive adult sentencing and may therefore be sent to adult prisons are being set up for failure upon their release. Putting a juvenile into an adult prison is directly placing them in a harmful environment that does not allow room for growth and