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Juveniles Should Be Tried As Adults Essay

702 Words3 Pages

The rational part of the human brain is not fully developed until the mid-twenties, so why are adolescents being charged as adults in the court of law? In America, there has been an ongoing controversy between supporters of trying juveniles as adults, and supporters of juveniles being charged as minors. Citizens under the age of 18 should not be tried as adults because their brains are not fully developed to think rationally. The brain is not completely developed until the mid-twenties, adolescents are still immature. When teenagers are charged for crimes as an adult it is not just because they are not mentally mature. “Children are different than adults” said legal director, Rita Bettis. Children do not have the skills necessary to make rational decisions, unlike adults whose brains are fully developed. If …show more content…

Juveniles can benefit from rehabilitation programs and therapy, juveniles should be given the help they deserve, rather than being put into a jail cell. Currently, “parole decisions may be based on factors unrelated to a consideration of maturity and rehabilitation” (Des Moines Register). The possibility of rehabilitation is very important in the decision of parole for juveniles. Juveniles need to be given the resources they need to be successful in society. Juvenile offenders are young and have the possibility to change and develop into mature adults with the help of therapy and rehabilitation programs. Children can be easily manipulated and are easily swayed. Justice Kennedy said, juveniles are “immature, susceptible to peer pressure and capable of change”. America needs to help the youth change and grow, not lock them up and do not provide the help they need. Juveniles are capable of change and should be given the help they need. The youth should not be tried as adults because they need help, not put into correctional

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In Gail Garinger’s, “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences,” she argues that juveniles have great potential in being able to change their lives for the better. Garinger starts off with the superpredator theory which involves kids who will commit crimes in groups, and in response, laws were made to easily try kids as adults in court. Even with the superpredator prediction never coming true, the laws that were made still exist. Garinger then moves on to describing how teens are different than adults in many different aspects. Garinger states, “As a former juvenile court judge, I have seen first hand the enormous capacity of children to change and turn themselves around” (Garinger par.

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Juveniles that go through the rehabilitation process will be able to have a clean record after they reach 18, whereas the exact opposite if they went through the adult justice system. Stevenson feels that, “We’ve become so fearful and vengeful that we’ve thrown away children, discarded the disabled, and sanctioned the imprisonment of the sick and the weak—not because they are a threat to public safety or beyond rehabilitation but because we think it makes us seem tough, less broken.” (289) This quote represents the treatment towards juveniles in prison and how the potential of these children is wasted. The goal of rehabilitation is to help the youth understand the consequences of their actions and learn how to make better choices in the

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457 Words | 2 Pages

Why are juvenile being tried as an adult?Ever since 1990 and 2010 many juveniles have been tried as an adult and been sent to adult jails or prisons. Some minors are transferred from a juvenile facilities to the adult system but when they are transferred,juveniles must be separated from any adult inmate and not interact with them. However,some states either refuse to follow those laws or stated that they will comply only to stall on progress. Juveniles that are being held in the adult system at a young age can have a lot bad experience there. There might be some things that made a juvenile being tried as an adult like how they committed an act of violence,if one of their family member are in prison or jail and had maybe been influenced by them,how their background surrounding is,or the people they hang out with.

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805 Words | 4 Pages

To better understand both sides of trying juveniles as adults, data on of trying juveniles as adults will be looked at. In doing this, evidence for why trying juveniles as adults is harmful will become clearer. The data will show that alternate programs such as community based program geared towards restorative justice and programs such as diversion will be most beneficial in helping juveniles learn social skill and learn the effect their behavior has on the community and the victim. Bringing both the juvenile and the community together with have a lasting effect and has been shown to reduce recidivism rate. Literature review Researchers look at the trying juveniles as adult in one of two ways, they look at juvenile delinquency as learned through peers, the second way they look at it is trying juveniles as adults is through a critical lens where the researchers believe that policy makers and judges benefit by keeping minority juveniles in detention centers or prison.

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1303 Words | 6 Pages

Minors are often immature when they commit horrendous crimes. Furthermore, they don't have an appropriate level of psychological understanding to make sound decisions. Trying juveniles as adults is wrong because juveniles are not mentally stable enough to understand that the decisions that they make can negatively impact their future, trying minors as adults hinders their growth as individuals and harms their productivity in the long run. Instead of juveniles being sentenced as adults for their criminal offenses, they should be obligated to participate in intervention programs. Juveniles don't have a fully developed mental stability to make sound decisions.

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1251 Words | 6 Pages

Many of these juvenile offenders are from poverty stricken communities, have no family support system, or lack self-confidence to a self-destructive level. These things effect a young person’s actions and can lead to violence and consequently confrontation with the law. The argument against trying youth offenders as adults is based on the idea that these damaging environmental factors can be reversed with the proper rehabilitation. The opposite side argues that these juveniles are and will always be criminals. They also believe that the repeated offenses and serious crimes must be addressed with the proper punishment regardless of age.

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506 Words | 3 Pages

We have seen today in society of how crime rates have been rampant and how statistics show that most of the crimes were being made by minors. I believe that when most of them look at the bottom of these young offenders come disproportionately from impoverished single-parent homes that are located in the neighbourhoods desinvertido and have high rates of learning disabilities, mental health, and substance abuse and problems with the help of the system of juvenile justice that can make a great return on a successful transition to adulthood. Their ages ranged from 20 and under, most are under fifteen years of age. Juveniles tried as adults must assume the same consequences as any other criminal and are subject to state prisons with inmates much higher and that have probably committed crimes much more tortuous then you could ever have. These minors between the ages of nine to twenty according to the offence committed or of the number of times that are prosecuted and believe that it is immutable.

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Why should teen felons get to spend their jail time in juvenile detention centers for committing the same crimes as adults? In today’s world, teens are increasingly committing violent crimes and being put in juvenile detention centers. Teens need to be tried as adults because it helps to bring justice to families of victims, and it also teaches the teens accountability. Charging teens as adults will also help reduce crime in the United States. Although many people feel that teens should not be given severe punishments because they are immature and innocent, they have not considered the problem teens are creating by committing these crimes..

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Juveniles in prison face increased violence and sexual abuse, and are at much higher risks of committing suicide than juveniles in juvenile prisons. In addition, the number of released prisoners that turn back to crime is much higher for those that were juveniles in adult prisons. Juveniles will face the consequences of their actions in juvenile prisons, but will also be given a second chance to change their lives through rehabilitation. It is time to stop failing this nation’s juveniles and build a system that benefits not only these children, but society as a whole through the end of a vicious criminal

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1777 Words | 8 Pages

Children as young as 14 can be tried as an adult for a harsh crime . If a young adult commits a crime they should be tried as an adult

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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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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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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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760 Words | 4 Pages

Can you imagine waking up behind closed walls and bars? Waking up to see your inmate who is a 45-year-old bank robber and you are a 14-year-old minor who made a big mistake. This is why minors who have committed crimes should not be treated the same as adults. Some reasons are because the consequences given to minors in adult court would impact a minor’s life in a negative way. If a minor is tried through a juvenile court, they have a greater chance of rehabilitation.

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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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