Should Children Be Punished In Lord Of The Flies

In Lord of the Flies, the author ends the story with the children on the island being saved. The end of the story left no chance for the boys to be punished for their actions. So, what if they were punished? What would happen to those of them who killed, and tried to kill someone else on the island? They would most likely be sent to adult court. But this should not be the case. Research shows that consequences do not impact children’s actions nearly as much as adults, so the children in Lord of the Flies, and any other children in the real world, should not be tried in adult court for their crimes. Sending a child to adult court puts them into an environment that makes unfairly biased decisions and punishments, increases their chances of having

(youth.gov) But, sending children to adult court completely conflicts with that idea. This means that children are being punished for something that they do not understand which is unjust in its own right. Some people might respond to this by saying that children would get a more suitable punishment for a crime in adult court. But this argument does not reflect what child developmental science has found. Take some of the children from Lord of the Flies as an example; if they were tried in adult court, they would most likely receive a life sentence because of the two purposeful deaths on the island but if they were tried in a juvenile court system, they would most likely go into rehabilitation. The juvenile court system emphasizes the fact that most, if not all, children don’t have a full understanding of what they were doing, they don’t have the culpability that is demonstrated in most adults during their court cases. (Regoli) So it is fairer to try children in juvenile court rather than adult court and this means children receive more suitable punishments in juvenile court. The children in Lord of the Flies did not understand the consequences of

For instance, a child from Lord of the Flies would most likely be sent to prison for at least a few years and a child sent to juvenile court would most likely be rehabilitated. The children that get sent to prison usually develop negative habits and beliefs due to the negative role models there. This creates a higher probability of the child repeating their previous crimes or committing a different crime in the future. (Regoli) This negatively impacts their futures because instead of learning the consequences of what they did wrong, children are learning from criminals that what they did was not wrong which causes them to have a very high chance of going to jail again as an adult. Children that are put into the adult justice system also experience higher rates of sexual abuse, physical assault, and suicide. (Youth Tried as Adults) Children are five times more likely to be assaulted after being put into the adult court system than if they were put in the juvenile court system. (Regoli) They are also thirty-six times more likely to commit suicide. (Regoli) These statistics show that it is not safe to put children into the adult court system because of how it can impact their physical and mental health. These impacts can cause children to have a negative future because some mental and physical impacts can last