More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays on criminal age of responsibility
Pros and cons juveniles being tried as adults
Arguments on whether juveniles should be charged as adults
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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.
Roper v. Simmons is considered a landmark case and is one of a handful that shows a new direction in granting some relief from what has been established as harsh “adult” punishments for juveniles (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). In fact, many studies are showing that the differences between adults and juveniles are quite significant (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). The courts are realizing that these differences must be taking into account when dealing with juveniles in the criminal justice system (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). However, that being said, change does not occur overnight, and for the unforeseeable future, juveniles will still continue to be waived into adult courts (Elrod & Ryder, 2014).
In the article,” The Steep Costs of Keeping Juveniles in Adult Prisons,” author Jessica Lahey subsequently claims, “ Juveniles constitute 1,200 of the 1.5 million people housed in federal and state prisons in this country, and nearly 200,000 youths enter the adult criminal-justice system each year, most for non-violent crimes. On any given day, 10,000 juveniles are housed in adults prisons and jails.” Reluctantly, juveniles are not given the opportunity in these circumstances to plead for their background story, nor do they receive the opportunity to engage towards their future. As the arguments began to rise throughout the years, the percentage on juveniles being tried as adults has also rose resulting in a more repetitive solution for these
According to “Kids in Prison” by Brian Hansen, juveniles are being tried as adults for violent and non-violent crimes. Kids being tried as adult is the most controversial topic the world cannot agree on today. It is hard to pick one side due to every case being a different situation, but I think I have established a well-thought opinion. Children should not be tried as adults due to their level of cognitive capability, proneness to harm in adult prisons, and their inability to be rehabilitated in a harmful environment. First, a child’s cognitive thinking is at a different level than an adult’s, so a child does not have the means to survive in an adult prison.
In the essay "Sentencing Children as Adults,” author Terence Gorski talks about the negative impacts of trying juveniles as adults in the criminal justice system. Patrick McCormick's
Children are not Adults The controversial issue of juvenile crime is a frequently intangible topic. Naturally, most people find the idea of a young child committing a severe crime very appalling, as no one expects a wide-eyed child to engage in such a heinous act of misconduct. In the essay “Adult Crime, Adult +30Time”, Linda J. Collier affirms that children who engage in adult conduct should undoubtedly be sent to an adult prison (Collier 608). Clearly, a child should be penalized for a corrupt act such as murder, but, Ms. Collier’s solution is considerably harsh for a child of such a young age. In the order of criminal justice, a young child should certainly not be disciplined in the same manner as an adult.
An average juvenile was involved in an argument with his teacher and took a gun and shot him without any intentions. When on trial, he realized that he made an unwise decision and responded quizzically to the interrogation questions from the prosecutor. Subsequently, demonstrators outside the trial court argued that “a child is not a man” and shouldn’t be punished like one. Such a case was presented in the trial of Nathaniel Brazill. Although all lives matter and children are known for being compulsive, dangerous citizens of our society, they are juveniles and deserve to be tried as juveniles.
Many of the people who are in prison were sent there as a child, and every day children are being tried as adults. In “Just Mercy”, Stevenson addresses this by saying “we treat some of the most at-risk, neglected, and impaired children exactly the same as full-grown adults in the criminal justice system” (Stevenson 270). Because of the immense prevelance of this concept, it is made more clear that this is a problem. Children, who are not fully developed mentally, are being held to the same standards of law as adults. With the use of empathy, and considering the many aspects of childhood, many of the cases prolonging peoples’ stay in prison could be prevented.
In 2010 juveniles were rebellious there where many cases where a teen was robbing and getting into fights. a case came up of a 14 year old girl she committed a crime where she got into a serious fight with one of her friends . She is now facing life in prison without parole. It is wrong to hold children as adults when they haven’t reached the age limit to be considered an “adult”. Children are not permitted the same rights and responsibilities an adult has.
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.
There are many children in the world who are being put behind bars and detained for alleged wrongdoing without protections they are entitled to. Throughout the world, children are charged and sentenced for actions that should not be considered as adult crimes. Here in the United States, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is age 12. Law enforcement officials and those in the juvenile justice system nationwide tend to mistreat underage individuals by trying cases while working through the lens of an adult. Unfair punishments are still handed down domestically, which is in violation of Supreme Court law.
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
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.
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.
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.
