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Should Children Be Charged As Adults Essay

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Children between 12-17 years of age accounted for 7% of all violent crime arrests in America, with approximately 192,000 arrests in 2019 alone (according to juvenile justice statistics.) Some people believe that putting minors in prison for violent crimes is inhumane and unsafe for children, while others believe they should get the same penalty as adults. The United States of America has created many laws to ensure the safety of its citizens, including the law of criminal responsibility, which determines when an individual is viewed as an adult in the eyes of the law. In some severe cases, including violent crimes, minors will be charged and treated as adults even though they might not be fully mentally developed. Even though minors might not be fully mentally developed, children should be charged as adults if violent crimes are committed because it treats severe crimes with the seriousness that they need to be and shouldn't be punished less for the same crimes as adults commit, they are not safe to be put in juvenile detention, and it reduces the chance of repeat offending. …show more content…

A person’s age is not a factor in determining whether it should charge him or her as an adult or a juvenile. The only thing that determines the charge is the crime that was committed and their criminal history. It is not fair to the family of the victim to have the punishment of the severe crime reduced because of the age of the offense committed even though how traumatizing it can be for the family. If the united states of America used age as a significant factor for crimes, then the youth crime rate would skyrocket and the kids wouldn't have the proper repercussion needed to learn and change for the better. That's why children should be charged as adults during violent crimes to show the significance of the

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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.

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Anthony S. Tomasso Professor Rodriguez ENG-101 12 APR 2023 The Struggle Between Juvenile and Adult When we as a society picture what age group is the most innocent and precious, we typically agree on children. When a child commits a serious crime such as: rape, murder, armed robbery, many teeter between sentencing that child as an adult rather than a child. In this essay, “Sentencing Children as Adults” by Terence Gorski (2001) discusses the difference in the Juvenile Justice system and how detrimental it is to not place the juvenile child in that system.

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When people commit crimes, there should be disciplined no matter what. Juveniles need to learn that their behaviors have consequences. Why should kids be given any less of a punishment for committing the same crime? According to one author, “Taking a life is murder regardless of the age of the offender, and the penalties to be imposed must not discriminate. After all, the victim’s life will never be returned, and the family will permanently lose their loved one” (“7 Top Pros and Cons of Juveniles Being Tried As Adults”).

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The criminal justice system was created in order to punish people who choose to break the law. Some people believe they are above the law and decided to do whatever they like regardless of the consequences. Children and adults are both responsible for the actions they commit. The criminal justice should tried children as adults for committing felonies because a crime is a crime regardless of the age of the individual. This can be fulfilled by punishing juvelives with the correct sentence, by seeing that they know their actions lead to consequence and they have the proper process for a teen to be tried as adult.

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