Nathan Ybanez Case

The unfaltering dissension about sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole has yielded opposition in the criminal justice system and dysfunction towards the young lives facing unsettled, extreme punishment for their mitigating crimes. While this particular topic can branch to very detailed discussions in divergent aspects such as: socially, politically, scientifically, and morally, it should be eliminated to only two characteristics: is it fair and is it right? Although it seems painless and facile to act on impulse when punishing juvenile criminals severely, the consequences are ineffective and adverse to the needs of the victims, the development of adolescent offenders, and the primary function of the criminal justice system.

The continuing behavior of the criminal justice system to disregard expectations to a case is inconsiderate and unsuitable for the defendants on trial. One of the superlative purposes of the justice system is to serve as a competent platform for defendants to have the right to a fair trial. In the case of Nathan Ybanez, the ongoing incest, child abuse from Nathan’s mother was overlooked, “I try to get her to talk about whatever it was that was making her sad, and a lot of times it would involve me coming and giving her hugs and staying in bed with her and letting her unload. And a few times that evolved into her doing sexual things to me that she shouldn't have been doing" (FRONTLINE). By definition, self-defense is the reasonable force to defend or protect oneself if believed he or she is in danger. Informing child protective services and notifying others about the abuse in his household resulted in no action, to fourteen-year-old Ybanez, the only way out of the atrocious sexual abuse from his own mother was to murder her. This is not to say Ybanez should go unpunished,

Teenagers lack a mature frontal lobe where cognitive thought processes, emotions, and reasoning occur. Paul Thompson, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine discovered,“These frontal lobes, which inhibit our violent passions, rash actions, and regulate our emotions, are vastly immature throughout the teenage years.” Because of this biological factor, teenagers, involuntarily, act upon impulse and temporary emotions. Unlike the systematic algorithm adult murderers use, the killings from teenagers are usually abrupt, personal, disorganized, and chaotic. Most homicides by adolescents are not conducted with malice of forethought, yet they are punished to the same standard as adult killers who commit first-degree murders. When young offenders enter the criminal system they are underdeveloped mentally and physically, they are never given the chance to reimburse as a mature, cultivated, and cultured adult before and during their sentence. Because of this, we do not see much anecdotal evidence of teen offenders evolving and thriving after prison. This lack of affirmation generates the common belief that there must be a genetic correlation with crime and that there is an absolutely nothing that can change a criminal into a law-abiding citizen. But because the general public