...When a child commits a crime do they instantly become an adult? Do they continue with the innocuousness of childhood, despite the gravity of his or her actions? Nearly three thousand juveniles have been sentenced to life of imprisonment with no chance of parole (children in prison). Typically without any consideration of their home life, age, or background. This is cruel, wicked, sad, and barbarous. Juveniles should not be tried as adults because, everyone deserves a second chance, the adolescent brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty-five, and children are fixable. Everyone deserves a second chance to make the right decisions and to try become a better person. Juveniles should be given the second chance to reflect on what they have done and not be put in a jail cell. They are just starting their lives, this will affect everything they strive to do. Trying to go to college, get a job, or start a family. A juvenile is a person who is under the age of eighteen, that is not enough time to even know who you are yet, to see your potential. Some of the kids that are being tried as an adult today aren't even old enough to drive, let alone start their high school careers. They are just little kids that have went down the wrong path and need some guidance. It is proven that...
Words: 563 - Pages: 3
...First of all, juveniles should not be tried as adults and punished with a sentence to life in prison because of their immaturity and the inability to take up their responsibilities. As Elena Kagan stated, “Mandatory life without parole for a juvenile precludes consideration of his chronological age and its hallmark features.” A juvenile is defined as child or teen at age 18 or younger, who is not yet old enough to be regarded as an adult. Studies show that human’s brain is not fully developed until an age of 25: “In fact, recent research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think with… the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment... Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional...
Words: 253 - Pages: 2
...topic you selected and explain two reasons for using it and include thesis statement: Juveniles and the justice system is the topic chosen for my research paper. According to the FBI “Juveniles (< 18 years) were arrested for murder, 2,198 for forcible rape, and 35,001 for aggravated assault,” these are all actions that sound horrible and reap even more horrible consequences. “When juvenile cases get transferred to adult criminal court through a process called a ‘waiver’—when a judge waives the protections that juvenile court provides” (Kathleen Michon, 2016). Usually, juvenile cases that are subject to waiver involve more serious crimes, or minors who have been in trouble before. Ever since more states have begun trying juveniles as adults in certain situations, the crime rate among juveniles has dropped significantly. Thesis statement: The frequency of juveniles committing horrendous crimes has been on a steady rise for the past couple of decades and even though fewer varieties of punishments, juveniles should be tried as an adult because it would deter and minimize crimes committed by minors and brings justice to the victims. Describe 3 major characteristics of your audience: My intended audience will include my professor and classmates, lawmakers, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and parents. I will try to persuade readers to agree with my stand on juveniles and violent crimes and why I feel so strongly that juveniles should be tried as an adult. I will need the help of...
Words: 980 - Pages: 4
...committed by juveniles gets the most attention from the public. During the recent years, more and more teens get sentenced as an adult. They sent teens from the juveniles’ courts to the adult courts. Their crimes are viewed more harshly and critically, which explain the reason why they are being tried as an adult. Many people gave different kind of opinion on this kind of topic, whether or not teens get tried as adults. There are many articles that address this topic and their claim on this controversial topic. Some of the articles that review this matter are “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentence” by Gail Garinger, “On Punishments and Teen Killers” by Jennifer Jenkins, and “Kids are Kids- Until They Commit Crimes” by Marie Lundstorm. They both have their own opinions and knowledge on this topic. My position in this issue is juveniles don’t deserve to be tried as adults. There has been a relentless amount of fear in the public about juveniles making...
Words: 737 - Pages: 3
...Children should never be tried as adults in any court of law. It has been a large and heated debate about if adolescents should be able to be tried as an adult for adult crimes. One side of this argument is that if a teenager commits an adult crime, they should be sentenced reflecting the crime and not the age. Whereas others believe that if a child does not have the same legal rights and responsibilities as adults, they should not be held to adult standards in this case either. In this paper I will explain the disadvantages and inhumanity of this injustice toward our future by using facts, statics, and blogs. In the 18th century, children as young as seven could be tried as adults, in criminal courts, in America. These children were jailed with adults because the first institution designed to accommodate children wasn’t established until the year 1825. The Society for prevention of Juvenile Delinquents founded the New York House of Refuge, which prompted other states to follow their examples by building group homes and half way houses for child offenders. The first juvenile court wasn’t established until the year 1899 in Cook County, Illinois. It took until the year 1925 for 48 out of the 50 states to found juvenile courts as well. An amendment in 1980, mandated that juveniles could not be placed in adult jail, with few exemptions. But these exemptions were later used as loop hole,” In the 1990: almost every state passed laws making it easier to try juveniles in adult criminal...
Words: 1147 - Pages: 5
...Pros and Cons of the Juvenile Justice System Under most state laws, juvenile offenders do not commit "crimes", they commit delinquent acts, and some of these acts would constitute as crimes if committed by an adult. The trial phase of a juvenile case is called an adjudication hearing. This is when the judge hears the evidence and makes a determination whether the child is delinquent or not. The court may then take whatever action it deems necessary to be in the child's best interest. The purpose of the juvenile court is to rehabilitate, not to punish. However, the clash point in this debate is whether juveniles are mature enough to handle the consequences of their actions and as well be punished more severely in adult courts, if they commit more serious crimes. One of the basic problems and source of this debate is determining where to draw the line. A crime is still considered a crime, no matter who commits it. That is the attitude of many in this country that leads to the question of whether or not the whole juvenile system should be discarded and allow the judicial system of criminal courts to try both children and adults under the same law, with the same rules. Here are a few points that will help elaborate on why eradicating the juvenile system might be considered a bad idea. On most occasions, we'll find that the kids who have committed a crime are as young as 9 and 10. It is an understood and even proven in facts that a child at an age like this, dose not have the...
Words: 1468 - Pages: 6
...October 21, 2015 Adult Crime Doesn’t Mean Adult Time In “Adult Crime, Adult Time” published in the Washington Post on March 29, 1998, Linda J. Collier argues that there should be a less lenient juvenile system. She reasons that as of 1998, since 1965 the number of 12-14 year olds arrested for committing violent crimes has tripled and that the juvenile system was “developed with truants, vandals, and petty thieves in mind, but not appropriate for the violent juvenile offenders of today”(qtd. Collier). She proceeds to argue that detaining a rapist or murderer in a juvenile facility until the age of 18 or 21 isn’t at all enough of a severe punishment. Collier demands that children under the age...
Words: 981 - Pages: 4
...Juveniles convicted as adults: Unconstitutional How does placing a child in an adult prison, where they risk sexual abuse that eventually leads to suicide, teach them a lesson? Juveniles, who commit serious crimes, are usually seen as convicts or criminals who should pay the price of what they committed even if that means sentenced as an adult and occasionally with no parole. Some of these juveniles who are being tried as adults suffered from psychological traumas caused at home by their parents or own family members. People need to know what can be done to prevent these crimes. Placing a juvenile in an adult trial is unconstitutional and is abusing their rights. Many of the juveniles prosecuted as adults are placed in adult jails pretrial, where they are at risk of harm, abuse and suicide. People need to understand the importance and dangers of incarcerating a child in an adult correctional facility. The administration of justice should implement meaningful juvenile justice reforms such as, rehabilitation centers, counseling, and they should correspondingly perform psychological test before being prosecuted in an adult trial so the U.S can uphold the dignity and human rights of our children and ensure that no child in our nation is considered a throwaway person. Juvenile crime rates soared in the mid- 1990s, and that is why every state initiated strict laws against juveniles and began incarcerating minors as adults. That high rates of juvenile delinquency dropped quickly...
Words: 2520 - Pages: 11
...The Age and Time for the Crime in Juvenile Justice Natasha Yancey Strayer University March 16, 2014 The Age and Time for the Crime The adult criminal system is designed for the prosecution of adults not children. Both state and federal legislative have responded to juvenile crime by focusing on sending more and younger children to adult criminal court. How and where do we draw the line between adults and children? Where do we draw the line between justice and malice? Juveniles that commit crimes should be punished for the crimes that they commit, but they should not be tried as an adult. This paper will offer information on why there needs to be changes in the juvenile justice system, and it will analyze why the increased prosecution of juveniles in adult court is disastrous and nothing but a threatening policy. This policy is unjust, harmful to children and does nothing to increase public safety; consequently punishing adolescents as adults does more harm than good. Thomas J Bernard a professor of criminal justice and sociology at Pennsylvania State University explained how psychologists and sociologists saw young offenders. Bernard’s (2010) book The Cycle of Juvenile Justice recognized that minors are children and not adults. (p. 45) Bernard (2010) further explains that during the 18th century children were tried as adults. Juveniles as young as the age of seven could be tried and sentenced in criminal courts. (Bernard 2010) His research expounds on the Society...
Words: 3422 - Pages: 14
...The United States used to more flexible on juvenile cases and now the United States are more punitive and harsh than other industrialized countries. The United States was one of the six countries to sentence juveniles to the death penalty. In 2005, the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. Judicial waiver has been the most common transfer method for juveniles to transfer from juvenile court to adult criminal court. There are three types of judicial waiver: discretionary, presumptive, and mandatory. Burke describes the maturity and the growth of the teenager’s brain. The adolescent’s brain is still growing and maturing during adolescence, it stops growing in their early 20s. Therefore, teenagers can’t be tried as adult because their brain...
Words: 259 - Pages: 2
...01.15.2013 My first topic is should citizens be permitted to carry a concealed weapon to their workplace (e.g., office, school, construction site)? The reason I chose this topic is to express my ideas and explain the advantages and disadvantages of carrying guns while studying, working, etc. The audience I especially want to focus on is young teenagers and young adults. There are several reasons why citizens should be permitted to carry weapons to their workplace: uses in fights, uses while nervous, and uses when filthy language said, mockeries. My second topic is should the government offer tax credits for the purchase of hybrid or alternative energy vehicles? The reason I chose this topic is to let people know that regarding our own benefits or favorite cars we also have to think about the society and the air pollution that each car pollutes till the maximum. Each Americans spend an average of 800 gallons of gas annually, and they expect the air to be totally clear. The audiences in this paper are the government officials that government has to offer credits to encourage people buy hybrid or electronic cars to keep ecology in process. There are several reason why government should offer tax credits for the purchase of hybrid or alternative energy vehicles. My third topic is should minors who commit violent crimes be tried as adults? My view is negative to this topic. The reason I chose this topic is to write about how minors and adults differentiate from each other in...
Words: 409 - Pages: 2
...Justice System Position Intro to Criminal Justice 21 OCT 2012 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explain how imperative it is to maintain the juvenile justice system as a separate entity from the adult court systems. It must stay separate in both the way cases are disposed and in the way sentence is carried out. Namely, punishment as in the adult system must be avoided and continued to be replaced by rehabilitation. In recent years, there has been intensive debate about whether the juvenile justice system should focus its limited resources on rehabilitation or punishment to curtail the rising statistics in juvenile delinquency. It is my belief that the juvenile justice system should primarily focus on the process of juvenile rehabilitation as opposed to strictly punishment. This paper will include an assessment of law enforcement, court processes, probation corrections, and community services as well as the intervention programs currently available to increase the incidents of juvenile delinquency. In this paper the subject to examine is both sides of the spectrum and try to show that the process of rehabilitation, rather than just straight punishment will provide a more effective solution to the problem of juvenile delinquency. I will be examining some of the arguments that oppose the views of rehabilitation over punishment and attempt to prove that the arguments for punishment are not as valid as those...
Words: 2127 - Pages: 9
...Should juveniles who commit first or second- degree murder receive a mandatory sentence of life without parole? That is a question that many people are asking themselves. This is a very debatable question due to the fact that if a juvenile does change, then he/she wouldn't have a chance at a new life because of the life sentence. I believe they should be granted a second chance, but if they take that second chance for granted, then they should be sentenced to life without parole. On the other hand, there has been cases where a teen who was sentenced to life got a second chance, but decided to take it for granted for being immature and emotionally unstable. Many teens make reckless decisions while growing up, some don't know better but others do. Where I stand in this situation is that juveniles should not be sentenced to mandatory life sentences without parole. Not many...
Words: 956 - Pages: 4
...When looking at the formation of gangs, Cloward and Ohlin place a large focus on juveniles having blocked legitimate opportunities leading them to experience a sense of strain. For Cloward and Ohlin, strain is defined as a feeling of injustice. Cloward and Ohlin argue that opportunities-such as education- are not equally distributed in the community. This implies that these juveniles have the “American Dream” mindset, however have no legitimate ways to achieve it because all of their opportunities are blocked. In following, these blocked opportunities produce strain. Because the juveniles have a feeling of injustice, they will search for alternative ways to achieve the “American Dream” and thus lead to illegitimate opportunities. However, illegitimate...
Words: 1695 - Pages: 7
...The Allentown Stalker On November 10, 1994, Harvey “Miggy” Robinson was sentence to death for multiple accounts of murdered, torture, and sexual assaults. After ten years of filing appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Robison will only be charged as an adult for the Fortney case, since he was eighteen when he committed the murder and sexual assult (Grimming, 46). The rational choice theory explains why Robison’s violent routine activity became a lifestyle after his first nonviolent crime. In the narrative of the Allentown Stalker, it states that Robinson was incarcerated in juvenile detention for eight months before he committed any violent crime (Grimming, 39). According to our lecture, after a juvenile’s first arrest they are most...
Words: 540 - Pages: 3
