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Should Juveniles Be Tried As An Adult?

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Juveniles in the Justice System Murder is a serious crime and thus deserves a serious penalty. The consequences of their crime can be jail time, or in the most severe cases, death. The question that can arise is this: should a child or teenager be tried as an adult? Are they emotionally mature enough to understand what they have done and deal with the very real, adult ramifications? According to the Supreme Court, the sentencing of juveniles to life in prison constitutes cruel and usual punishment; which is illegal as referenced in the Eighth Amendment. Taking into consideration the heavy weight of the topic, I have to agree with the Supreme Court, that juveniles should not be tried as an adult regardless of the crime. To properly identify if these children should be given life sentences for murder, we must clearly define what murder is. According to the …show more content…

The stride that kids make to learn from their actions is a noteworthy factor. Gail Garinger, a former juvenile court judge states, “I have seen firsthand the enormous capacity of children to change and turn themselves around” (Garinger 2). Of course when faced with a mistake, children are going to learn from it and become better by it. We simply must stop dehumanizing these kids for acting on impulse and making mistakes. Murder is a huge deal. But the punishment that is being dulled out to these children simply isn’t just. Forcing a juvenile to spend the rest of their life wasting away in a cell is cruel and unusual punishment. The punishment these kids should be given is time for rehabilitation, time for consolation, and nothing more than that. How is a child, forced to live the rest of their days behind bars, going to use what they learned from their actions and positively affect society? Taking away the life of a juvenile is almost as bad as the juvenile committing the crime itself. Punishment should not be payback, it should be

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