...Should people less than eighteen years old (minors/juveniles/adolescents) ever be tried and sentenced as adults? The legislation of trying and sentencing youth criminals under adult justice system has been a hot topic of debate. Supporters of tough laws on insist the need to enforce harsh penalties to uphold justice. The practice of treating youth criminals as adults since the 1990s is a result of the steep rise in youth crimes. However, youth advocates argue that tough laws should not be applied to youth offenders anymore. The core issue of the controversy is whether, because adolescents are biologically and mentally different from adults, they should be treated differently. For minor offenses such as property crime in which nobody is killed, it is understandable that harsh punishments are not necessary. But there need to be tougher penalties for severe crimes that threaten and take others’ lives. Hence, juveniles under eighteen years old who commit violent crimes such as murder and rape should be tried and sentenced as adults in order to punish them for their mistakes, to lower the crime rates and to protect the society. Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor from Temple University, describes the adolescent brain as “a car with powerful gas pedal and weak brakes” (cited in Hansen, 2010, p.123). This is a good illustration of the fact that humans’ psychosocial abilities do not develop fully before reaching adulthood as cognitive abilities do. A series of experiments studying...
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...Every year there are millions of people committing crimes, but the crimes 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...
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...Are juveniles the same as adults, should they be sentenced to life in prison? The Supreme court has always been arguments about whether juveniles should be sentenced to life in prison as the same way adults are sentenced. The Supreme Court, on June 25, 2012 ruled that juveniles who have committed murder could not be sentenced to life in prison because it violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, four justices strongly disagree, arguing that mandatory sentences reflected the will of American society that heinous crime committed by juveniles should have the punishment to always be sentenced to life in prison. I strongly agree with the Supreme Court that juveniles should not be sentenced to life in prison. Age is a very big difference between an adult and a juvenile as in how they act, talk, and react....
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...More than 25% of people serving life without parole after being sentenced as children were convicted of a felony murder or accomplice liability, meaning they were not the primary perpetrators of the crime, and may not have even been present at the time someone was killed. Many juveniles are sentenced to life at a young age for committing crimes that don’t deserve life sentences. They are still young and they make mistakes. With that being said they should be able to have time to grow and rehabilitate to become better. Since they are young their brain isn’t quite fully developed as adults. They deserve a second chance. Most juveniles are peer pressured and are influenced by things that they see and they don’t really know how to get out of the...
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...Grizcely Hernandez Period 1 AVID IIII 13 May 2016 Juvenile Offenders Youth violence is escalating in the United States. More juveniles crimes, are sentenced to juvenile court, and then sent right back to where they started The question is, are these juveniles being treated right, are they getting the proper attention? Should they be treated like adults? Or should teenagers, no matter what the crime may be, be treated as juveniles? Many social and cultural factors in a child's life may influence a child’s behaviors. In fact, according to Dr. Noguera, Most violent teens are from lower class urban areas. Many of them are minorities and a lot come from dysfunctional families. Why then, do people say there is no way to prevent a juvenile from turning violent? When a child is aggressive with at school, or siblings at home, or even when or if they kill animals, they are calling out for attention. These are signs that lead to violence. Has society just given up on teen's altogether once they commit a crime? Obviously there is a pattern, and prevention is key. California and other states respond to the increase of violence and juvenile offenders by building new facilities. Instead, of doing this they spend that money on prevention methods such as providing schools with more counselors? They could provide more after school programs to help keep the kids off the streets. If a child needs help with a problem they should be able to talk to a counselor. I'm not talking about two or...
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...between Juvenile and Criminal Justice System David E. Foster Kaplan College – Las Vegas Campus CJ 150 Professor Laura Fletcher December 5, 2013 Difference between Juvenile and Criminal Justice System How would it feel if our children were being treated like adults in the criminal justice system; getting sentenced for life without parole, or maybe have your child sentenced to death as a teenager. Well thanks to our juvenile justice system they discipline adolescent different than adult, the system is design to solely handle children’s matters. The juvenile court system is a dedicated court, for an adolescent which is intended to encourage rehabilitation for youth in a structure of procedural due process whereas the criminal justice system is designed to punish adults who choose not to obey the laws. It has concern for acting in the best interest of the child and the greatest interest of public safety. A juvenile court judge has to be elected or appointed to be in charge of juvenile cases and his or her decision can only be reviewed by another judge but from a higher court. Some of his duties might consist of making a decision if the juvenile should stay in detention prior to trail or release them to their parents; also the judge handles all waiver proceedings meaning if the crime committed is that serious where the judge thinks the juvenile should be treated like an adult, then he can give them a waiver into the adult justice system. As for the juvenile court...
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...Juveniles should not be imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole! In the Frontline documentary “When Kids Get Life” we are introduced to 5 cases in Colorado where teenage boys had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Over 2,200 juveniles have been convicted of crimes and sentenced to life without parole in the 46 states of which have judicial waiver laws. Nathan Ybanez, Trevor Jones, Jacob Ind, Erik Jensen and Andrew Medina are the teenagers profiled in the documentary. The documentary shows five cases that dealt with felony murder. “The rule of felony murder is legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder in two ways. First, when an offender kills accidentally...
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...There have been many arguments about whether or not juveniles should be sentenced to mandatory life without parole. The execution of juveniles for the crimes they committed when they were under the age of eighteen is a huge issue that the Supreme Court has had to deal with. It all started out in 1972 with Furman vs Georgia when the Court ruled that life without parole did not violate the eighth amendment of the constitution. Throughout the years there have been many different opinions about the situation. The majority of supreme court justices believes that it should not be mandatory to sentence a juvenile to mandatory life without parole for committing crimes but the other minority argues to retain it. I agree with the majority of justices who argue that sentencing a juvenile to life mandatory life without...
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...Juvenile Crimes and Social Deviance Juvenile crimes have been decreasing since their all-time high in 1994 however the nature of their crimes had been drastically changing for the worse. Social deviance is defined as actions and/or behaviors that violated social norms. Over the past few decades many children have desired to be deviant while others have been forced into it. Petty crimes are becoming more common in today’s society, which is causing kids to have to go to more extremes to be deviant and thus resulting in more severe reactions to this behavior. The cause of juvenile violence is frequently related to one of two things; the child was exposed to violence when they were young or they are trying to fit into a deviant crowd. In 2008 approximately 10% of the children under 18 had been injured in an assault, 46% had been assaulted and 60% had been exposed to violence and/or crime. (Crime Solutions) Children who have been exposed to violence when they were young are more likely to commit crime when they are older. Children who were younger than 12 when they were exposed to the violence or crime are the most likely to commit crimes later in life. (United States Department of Justice) Children who face violence at home are also more likely to become a runaway, which makes it much easier to run into the wrong crowd. There is an increasing amount of children in abusive homes who end up trying to become vigilantes towards the abuser in order to make the abuse stop...
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...an Adult In the United States there are a lot of crimes being committed by youth, most of these crimes are serious enough for these children to be charged as an adult. These children are being over charged. They are still children just committing adult crimes. When these youth are tried as adults it exposes these juveniles to state prisons without parole and even execution. In addition, it is over 2,500 child offenders serving life without parole in United State prisons for crimes committed before they 18th birthday. Therefore, youth should not be tried as adults because they are being over charged for these crimes. One reason that youth should not be charged as adults is that it’s just a double standard on these children. These juveniles don’t have full brain development to even know the outcome of the crimes committed. The thing about youthful offenders is that no one seems to care about them. Most people don't like the youth of America, even the good ones can be unpleasant. Combine the feeling they have toward the average teenager with the fear inspired by youth violence, and you have a population that no one wants to deal with. There is a disturbing trend of increasing violence among young people. "Uniformly in our communities, more young people are engaging in dangerous behavior. As a result of that, more prosecutors and the citizens generally seem to be exerting more pressure to charge these youths as adults. (Judge...
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...court ruling for juvenile sentences depends on the crime that they have committed. More than half of the juveniles that commit horrific crimes are tried as adults today in the supreme court. The supreme court does not let the juveniles off easy, they will try them as adults and give them years sentences, or even life behind bars. In my opinion I do believe that juveniles should be tried as adults but the sentence time should not be life behind bars. The juveniles should be sentenced to some years behind bars, but during this time, they should be able to attend some type of counseling or therapy. There has been multiple crimes that have been committed by juveniles in the past and recent times.On March 9, Lionel Tate was only twelve years old when he killed a six year old little girl doing professional wrestling moves. In my opinion I do not think that Lionel Tate should have gotten the sentence he had gotten. Mr. Tate was tried as an...
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...this situation, they talk about whether or not juveniles should be punished as adults for being involved in this crimes. While many believe juveniles are not mature enough and punishing them as adults is cruel, these teenagers should have the same consequences as adults who commit heinous crimes, because teenagers are criminals regardless of their young age. Studies have argued that the brain stops growing at age twenty five. Therefore an adult’s brain is fully developed, while a teenager’s is in the process of development. In the article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains,” Paul Thompson states, “A massive loss of brain tissue occurs in the teen years.” Even Though this statement could be true, this does not mean all teenagers are going around enacting crimes. The massive loss tissue should not be used as an excuse to let teenagers commit crimes without serious consequences. Teenagers...
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...Juvenile Delinquency December 3, 2014 Juveniles in The Adult Prison Children as young as 14 years old have been tried as adults and are sentenced to die in prison without considering their age and the factors that led the individual to commit the offense. Society believes that a juvenile should be tried as an adult because it will help them understand the consequences of their actions, however, children and teenagers that commit crimes are too young and they don’t have the mental ability to understand the consequences of their actions. These juveniles are not aware of what they are going to face behind the adult’s prison bars. According to the National Juvenile Justice Network, it states, “ 200,000 youths are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year across the United States.” Studies have shown that juveniles that are sentenced to adult prisons are more likely to commit crimes again after being released from prison. Juveniles are more likely to be sexually assaulted, abuse, neglect, suicidal, and depressed in adult prisons. The adult prison has shown failures to rehabilitate these juveniles. Laws like the Felony Murder rule has to shown to be cruel and unusual punishments towards teenagers and children. Society does not bothered to look into factors such as the juvenile’s brain, mental disability, and their living environment that causes them to commit the crime. “Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in the adult prisons than in juvenile...
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...Penalty for Juveniles Loren L Broadwater CJA/374 February 8, 2016 Dr. Pamela Knothe Death Penalty for Juveniles In society today, the discussion of Capital Punishment - or the Death penalty - is a highly controversial subject. The political correctness stance that the country has taken only compounds the discussion exponentially. The death penalty is often associated with heinous crimes that are committed by adults. Capital punishment is highly publicized by the media when adults commit senseless acts against humanity. When adults are placed on death row society acknowledges that justice has been served. However, adults aren’t the only members of the community that commit unspeakable acts of crime. Juveniles also have been arrested for murder, charged as adults, and then sentenced to death. The thought of executing a juvenile is a double standard when compared to the laws in place to protect the same juveniles. Rehabilitation is the norm when dealing with juveniles who commit delinquent acts against the community. The question then arises as to whether Capital punishment is the correct form of punishment when a youth commits murder? Legal adulthood starts at age eighteen, the age at which a young person can vote, buy cigarettes, join the military, and live however they want as long as they follow the law. When young adults choose to break the law they need to be held accountable for those actions. “Do the crime and do the time”, is the philosophy for adults. When someone...
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...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...
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