...Laurie Mosley Ethics Mrs. Kauffman May 30, 2015 Juvenile Capital Punishment The youngest offender ever executed in the United States was James Arcene, a ten year old Cherokee, who was hanged in Arkansas in 1885 for participating in a robbery and murder (James Austin, 2000). Juvenile capital punishment has always been a highly controversial and publicized matter. As a society we recognize that children, those under eighteen years old, cannot and do not function as adults. Because children do not function as adults, the law takes special steps to protect children from the consequences of their actions and often gives them a second chance. The law prohibits people under eighteen years old from voting, serving in the military, and serving on juries. Majority of the criminals are male offenders over twenty years old, but this is changing rapidly. Not only are adults committing capital offenses, but children who are under eighteen years old are committing such heinous offenses. A child that commits a heinous crime is not mentally capable of comprehending the crime he or she commits. The system of values in the age under eighteen is not built yet, other people can easily influence children, and the psychiatric processes are not yet stable. Under these conditions a child should never be sentenced to death or a life in prison because their mind is not fully developed. Children still have a chance to change and be rehabilitated. ...
Words: 1964 - Pages: 8
...Introduction The various mixture philosophies are a great idea. The primary model should be incapacitation. There should not be any television or any activities for criminals that carry a heavy violation. Criminals that are incarcerated have too many luxuries. This paper will discuss the different punishment levels dealing with the juvenile system. These philosophies are used to express a variety of different concerns and arguments regarding the use of appropriate sentencing and treatment. Some of the main philosophies of punishment are retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Retribution is an idea that the people who violate the law by committing a crime, deserves to be punished. People who violate the law should be punished just because they broke the law. Most critics argue that punishment is not always the actual outcome. Deterrence is an idea that those who commit a crime must be punished to serve as an example so that people will think twice about committing a crime. Incapacitation is for an offender who is being punished will not be able to go back into society to commit more crimes. For most offenders being in prison is supposed to allow the prisoner to suffer for his criminal violations. The advantage to this philosophy is that incarceration keeps people from getting hurt, and more importantly takes the offender of the streets. Rehabilitation is seeking the reason that the crime was committed in the first place. Rehabilitation is ranged from providing...
Words: 287 - Pages: 2
...Alex Cecola Professor Carrick Writing 140 64595 Assignment #1 January 30, 2012 Bigger Than Life…Try Big Freedia Scientifically, humans have been defined as having opposable thumbs, higher thinking, having dominion over earth, etc. But what defines one human before another? What makes one human more interesting and marketable compared to the next? A human being can be “intersectionally” classified by race and class just based off gender. Race and class are not only verifications justified on a driver’s license and country club application background checks, but actually form and shape gender roles even in today’s so called “equal rights” society. One of the most intriguing characters making headlines lately is a, by sex, a male and yet is referred to as a “her” (Jonathan). Big Freedia comes from the musically established city of New Orleans where new genres of music seem to get pumped out by the decade. Big Freedia has taken full advantage of her city and the new music. Her genre of music can be labeled under “Sissy Bounce” subgenre. This type of music is an energetic upbeat twist off from the standard hip-hop music. This genre known as bounce was not started by Big Freedia, and she admits it and says she is just the next artist hoping to put bounce music on the map. (Jonathan) Upfront, Big Freedia is a taller rather larger man, standing at six feet and two inches tall. She dresses very fashionably yet portrays a more masculine look compared to a feminine one. Her...
Words: 1332 - Pages: 6
...Juvenile offenders are young persons who cannot be tried as adults because they are too young. Juvenile court process are not like adult court process. When a juvenile gets caught doing something bad they do not go to jail. They get taken to law enforcement but the parents are contacted so they can pick them up there. That is the intake process. The next step after that is the adjudication process. That is when the charges are reviewed and the juvenile has court hearings. Usually the hearings for juveniles are not public. They are usually behind closed doors. If the juvenile is convicted then that is the disposition process. That is when they determine what kind of punishment the juvenile will receive. For example if they need to go to a juvenile rehab or probation, or if they need to get sent to boot camp and also if they need to pay any restitution for any damage they need to pay for. Like for example to pay for a damaged window or to pay for something they have stolen from a grocery store. Young teenagers are considered juveniles until the age of 17. After the age of 17 they can be tried as adults. Most juveniles learn their lesson the first time they get in trouble. Some do not and continue to get in trouble. Sometimes that happens due to the fact that their parents do not care about them. They come from families with no dads around only moms or vice versa. I think juveniles should be punished the hard way as soon as they start acting up and getting into trouble. That way...
Words: 304 - Pages: 2
...Juvenile Court Process Faye D. Baker CJS 220 July 27 2011 Curtis Turney The juvenile court system was designed to help juveniles rather than project harsh punishment on their lives. It is design to provide social services and assistance. Most juveniles commit crimes or get into trouble with the law, due to rebellion. There are many reasons a child falls into the juvenile court system. A few reasons are death of parents, poverty environment, molestation, child abuse and rape. The maximum age for juveniles is seventeen. At the age of eighteen the child is considered as a young adult. The juvenile court process includes four different processes. The first is called Intake which starts the process procedure to determine the seriousness of the crime, and whether the case should go to court. There are four other processes under intake. The first is detention hearing. The child has to go through a detention hearing to determine court appearance and whether protection is needed until he or she appears in court. The second is the transfer procedure, which consist of transferring the case to another jurisdiction. The third is the Waiver hearing; waiver hearing is when the case requires a hearing before being transferred. The last process is statutory waiver; this process determines whether or not the child is treated as an adult depending on the seriousness of the crime. Adjudication, This level of the process clearly states that juvenile crime process is less than...
Words: 509 - Pages: 3
...daughter from a prominent white family (hopkins) juveniles have been taking advantage because of the things they are accused of most juveniles do not even know their amendments so they're not protected by them either. Juveniles under the age of eighteen should not be tried as an adult because a prison is not parenting any child, some of the punishments are too harsh, and because of their immature brains. Prison is not a place where juveniles will actually get to learn things like people expect them to. It does not provide help like a parent would. Most juveniles commit crimes because they are probably neglected or do not have a parent role model there for them. Any role model could do so much for an adolescent because they follow the steps of that person. Young offenders often end up isolated from society because of this they choose to do foolish things. The foolish things some end up doing are joining gangs, committing robberies and doing drugs. A prison is not going to help as much with those issues. A gang member still has a connection to the outside world so them changing is a bad bit Unlikely. Prisons can not change juveniles like people think they should. If prisons help so much why are there second offers? Most juvenile offenders become second offenders because...
Words: 2059 - Pages: 9
...exception that pregnant women were often spared punishment until after they had given birth. Both men and women were mixed together as prisoners and were watched by male jailers, which made the women prisoners subjected to abuse and mistreated. Most female inmates at this time were prostitutes or thieves and because of this no one really worried about what was happening to them. This all began to change in the early 1800’s when Elizabeth Gurney Fry began a ministry for the women in prison. Fry would visit the prisons and read the Bible to the female inmates even though she was advised of the dangers that were possible. Fry created the Association of the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate in 1817. In the U.S., Eliza W.B. Farnham was the head matron of the women’s wing at Sing Sing Prison in New York from 1844-1848. She tried to make the women’s prison more like a home instead of a prison. She was fired for basically being too nice to the inmates. In 1873 the first separate prison for women was built. (Foster, "Women's Prisons," 2006) The prisons have changed because now the male and female prisoners have been separated. • What are the three basic arguments established in the 1800s that supported the separation of juvenile prisoners from adult prisoners? What would happen if there were no distinction between prisons for juveniles and adults? According to Foster (2006), there were three basic arguments regarding the juvenile prisoners: 1. the penitentiary procedure was...
Words: 413 - Pages: 2
...Lanier 06/13/2013 Juvenile justice in Virginia is based on the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, which was passed in 1974 by US Congress. It stated that all states should provide the best rehabilitation for people who are too young to bear criminal responsibility for their actions (US Dept. of Justice, 1974). The Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice has a set values statement, which determines the attitude to juveniles in criminal justice and respectful treatment provided by law enforcement officers to them. Juveniles in criminal justice are Virginia are treated as a specific group and have extended rights compared to adult offenders. Juveniles have their correctional centers and detention facilities, but the maximum sentence there cannot be too long because Virginia has not enough bed spaces to detain all juveniles who have problems with the law. The values of knowledge, respect and effective communication are realized in addressing juvenile cases in the court. Juvenile court is represented by Juvenile and Domestic Relations District courts in Virginia. However, there are certain cases when juvenile offenders can be tried in criminal court. According to Powers (2009), previously juvenile cases were heard in juvenile courts only. It was extremely difficult to transfer the case of juvenile offender (even the most violent) to the adult court. The latest US tendencies show that all...
Words: 1560 - Pages: 7
...happened to be outspoken women and the women that disobeyed their husbands. At this time, things happened to get very bad for women. Before the 1800 century, the type of punishment that was used for women happened to be given in many different forms which really caused problems during this time. Some of the women that happened to be serious offenders happened to be hung or even burned. Plus, there happened to be some women that were sold as slaves to others. Since then women’s prisons have changed completely. If they were to commit a crime they will be punished for it, but they will be punished in the proper way without violating their rights. A number of individuals happen to argue that the 1800 century and the early 1900 century happened to be a period in which the change of the juvenile criminals would have taken place. There were a lot of key features that were in the juvenile justice system which happened to cause tension between the systems of punishment and reformation, plus the separation of all of the juveniles from adults of the criminal justice system. I believe that if there wasn’t a difference between the prisons for the juveniles and adults there would be a lot of problems that would occur in different prisons. They happen to be separated for a reason, and if they weren’t different I feel that juveniles would be more in danger than the adults in prisons. There happened to be prison labor also, which happens to be the type of work that is done by those who have been...
Words: 421 - Pages: 2
...better to just punish the child with force? Or to rehabilitate the child by teaching the child what he or she did wrong? I say both works when they are used together. In this paper I am going to explain where I stand on the juvenile justice system. I believe by having the juvenile justice system be more focused on punishment it will see a decrees in crime. As a child if you did something wrong and you parents sat you down and told you not to do it again, and nothing else happened would you do it again? Children like to push and push to see what they can get away with, but by punishing them you are setting boundaries. By having a stricter punishments on juveniles we can prevent crime. It the juveniles know what type of punishment they will receive from committing a crime then it might be a deterrent from committing that crime. This works in high schools around the country. Twenty years ago it was not that uncommon for a juvenile to have a pocket knife in his pocket even during school, but times have changed and by bringing a pocket knife to school is a serous offense. Juveniles know this and this prevents them from bring a pocket knife to school. It works in that example and I think it could work with every crime. Punishment is light on every juvenile crime that is committed from the just being delinquent to committing murder. Riley (2007) stated,...
Words: 1540 - Pages: 7
...Juvenile Justice Process and Corrections Journal Entry Today I got caught up once again. This life is tough, living in the projects, not having or even knowing my father, and my mom is always working. She has two jobs and I never really see her. I try to stay out of trouble, but for some reason always find my way back to it. My name is Xander, I’m only 17, and tonight I know I have disappointed my mom again. I have a long rap sheet already at this young age, everything from robberies to possession of narcotics and burglary. I guess I just don’t learn my lesson. I was hanging out with some of my friends from the block and one of them told me to hold a gun. I told him I didn’t want to, since I have been already locked up in for a year in juvenile hall. I get caught again they may charge me as an adult or longer jail time in juvenile hall. He then told me if I were down for the gang I would hold it. Pretty much made me take the gun from him and place it in side my pants. I couldn’t say no, plus we needed protection. We cant just hangout in the streets and not have protection from our rivals. I was inside my buddy’s car when we got pulled over. We were all on probation, and had some weed visible in a cup holder. The cop pulled us out of the car. I ran, I’m on probation and have a gun on me. The cops chased me and found me in bushes. It all happened so fast that I forgot to throw the gun out. He searched me and found the gun in my waistband. That could’ve gone a lot worse if I...
Words: 937 - Pages: 4
...When correction officials talk about solitary confinement, they describe it as a prison within a prison, and for a good reason. Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment which isolates an inmate from any human contact. It is often used as a form of punishment for a violation of prison regulations. However, as Dana Liebelson depicts in her article, solitary confinement is detrimental to juvenile inmates. In the article, “This is What Happens When We Lock Children in Solitary Confinement”, by Dana Liebelson, she describes the horrific psychological damage solitary confinement has on youth in correctional facilities. “This is What Happens When We Lock Children in Solitary Confinement” brings to light the negative effects solitary confinement has on youth in juvenile correctional facilities. Liebelson writes about individual cases of children who have experienced isolation in correctional facilities. In each case, juveniles claimed isolation changed them for the worse. They emphasized not only the short term effects it had on their health, mind, and behavior, but also the long term effects that isolation caused as well. In one case, a seventeen year old boy named Kenny...
Words: 892 - Pages: 4
...pillory and physical punishments such as whipping, men and women the same. Female prisoners prior to the 1800s were placed in separate cells, but mixed with male prisoners during the day and controlled by male prison guards around the clock. Once in prison women were surrounded by men, which led to the sexual abuse and exploitation of many female prisoners during those times. As the years have passed female prisons continue to offer a setting very much identical to the male prison, with daytime work activities, education programs, and occupational programs, strict schedules, and constant security. Female prisons today also offer programs that help to sustain parenting (Phoenix, 2011). As the penitentiary became firmly established in the half of the 1800s, reformers argued that young people should not be locked up in these institutions (Foster, 2006). Reformers then established three basic arguments to support the reasons behind the needed separation of juvenile prisoners from adult prisoners: 1. The adult prison system was too rigorous for juveniles. 2. Juveniles would pick up bad tendencies from older prisoners and be upset by the experience of imprisonment. 3. Juveniles could change their ways if they were redirected to facilities developed specifically for individuals similar in age. Had things remain as they were prior to efforts to reform, and there was no distinction between juvenile and adult prisons the criminal justices system would have many juveniles with irreparable...
Words: 376 - Pages: 2
...Adult Justice v Juvenile Justice System There is no question that if a person is involved in any type of crime they will at some time make their way through the justice system. However, when that person is an adolescent they will go through the juvenile justice system, as an adult would go through the adult justice system. Even though the crimes of each can be of the same manner or hold the same severity the punishment results can differ. The main reason for having the two different justice systems is that children cannot be held to the same punishment levels as an adult. Even though a child has committed the same crime an adult may commit, not every child has a mental understanding to make mature adult like decisions. The juvenile justice system was made in effort of saving children. (Siegel, pg281) The thought that a child has suffered from abuse or neglect among other factors; they could be rehabilitated into productive members of society. Much like an adult justice system a juvenile justice system also has different stages of the process. Whether it is an adult system or juvenile system the parties involved will have the right to an attorney, the right to cross examine witnesses, be notified of charges, and the prosecution must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.(legalmatch,2014). This is known as Due Process, which for many years’ juveniles did not have the rights to. This was due to the fact that juveniles were not being punished but yet rehabilitated. Things...
Words: 995 - Pages: 4
...location they all face the same battle. This battle is ever going and leaves law enforcement asking how do I stop this crime from happening again? Like most problem they begin as acute, but eventually turn into something much bigger and become ongoing. The juvenile court system has been developed to handle crimes within juveniles and develop a system to help combat crimes from its lowest and earliest stage. Juvenile crime rate is on the rise and more and more violent crimes are happening daily within juvenile’s Society today is shaping children and young adults into accepting violence as the “norm” and is allowing children to think it is acceptable to commit these crimes daily. Recently the “knock out” game swept across the country. These was a “game” played by young adults and juveniles where they targeted defenseless individuals walking the streets and would sneak up on them and strike them in the face. The goal of this so-called “game” was to knock the person unconscious with one strike to the head or face area. This alone tells me that there is a problem with violence among young adults today. Crimes like this happen daily and the popularity of violent crimes and drugs has grown among teens. The problem with a lot of juveniles that commit these crimes is simply lack of guidance. Unfortunately there are many broken homes and children being raised by single parents. When the parents go to work these individuals are left alone this sometimes leads to them making the wrong decisions...
Words: 1223 - Pages: 5