Argumentative Essay On Juveniles

“People forget that there’s two sides to every story.” (Unknown). The film Seabiscuit, directed by Gary Ross, represents the more positive side of the Great Depression; on the other hand, the novel The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, expresses the extremely unpleasant side of the Great Depression. Seabiscuit is about a wealthy man, Charles Howard, finding a hobby to get through the depression; Howard’s hobby then brings joy throughout the whole country. The Grapes of Wrath is about an exceptionally poor family trying to find work, but they encounter many obstacles that continuously put them down.

Kenzie Houk had everything going for her. She was twenty-six, engaged to the love of her life, and was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. In the late winter of 2009, her four-year-old daughter waddled in her bedroom, hoping to surprise her mommy with a good morning smile. Instead, she found her mother with a bullet through her head. Eleven-year-old Jordan Brown, the soon-to-be stepson of Kenzie Houk, was arrested and charged with homicide, pulling the trigger before he went to school. There were two counts of homicide, one for Kenzie Houk and the other for her baby. Brown was tried in juvenile court and sentenced to a residential treatment facility until the age of twenty-one. To Kenzie Houk’s family, Brown’s sentence would never live up to that her four-year-old and seven-year old daughters would have to serve. “The day Kenzie was murdered, the whole family was served with a life sentence,” said Debbie Houk, the victim’s mother. “[Her daughters] are serving life right now. They are never going to see their mom” (Chen). Serious juvenile crimes, similar to this, cannot be properly justified in the juvenile justice system. Juveniles should be tried in the adult criminal court system for serious crimes because of the lack of severity in the juvenile court system, increased youth crime and recidivism rates, and the mental maturity of juvenile offenders.

Murder is always a devastating sight, juveniles who commit homicides is another story. Sentencing a juvenile to life without parole isn’t the best punishment for a child that is developing in life. Juveniles are full of built up steam and emotions, they aren't comprehensive with the actions they take.

The ethos is a Greek word that means credibility, it is often used in English to demonstrate the strength of the writing or someone. There are four essays that have weakest to strongest ethos that are read; “Kids are Kids-Until They Commit Crimes”, “Startling Findings on the Teenage Brains”, “On Punishment and Teen Killers”, and “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentence”. Each essay has a different point of view, all but one talks about teens should not get adult punishment for crimes they commit because they are not fully developed like adults. Teens do not have a full concept as adults do when they commit such a horrendous crime. The strongest article with ethos is “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences” because she dealt with juvenile criminals: she gives facts and very little feelings when giving information in the article. The weakest article with ethos is “Kids are Kids-Until they commit crimes” because her facts were most likely opinions, she wouldn’t state where she found her research, her essay is confusing, and her article was not actually in an acceptable order; especially how she gives her the information.

On June 6, 1996, a 6 year-old boy believed to have been the youngest person ever charged with attempted murder in the United States had the charges reduced to assault with intent to injure in Martinez, California. The boy accused of the brutal beating of a month-old infant during the burglary of a neighbor's apartment (Curtius A3-A23). The court considered him too young to help in his own defense, and a psychiatric evaluation ruled him unable to understand the consequences of his acts. Charles Patrick Ewing (1990) writes, "the stakes are high when a court decides whether a juvenile murder defendant will be tried as a juvenile or as and adult. Generally a youth tried in juvenile court faces a rather limited punishment if found guilty" (p. 151).

In California where this seems to be the place where children are killing the most there was a Direct Filing In 2000, that changed the way it deals with some minors. After intake and screening, the probation officer investigates what happened and sends the case to be filed. Then the DA can choose to file charges in adult criminal court directly. In every state the DA dealing with the case has to think about if the minor is already a ward of the Court for a different felony crime. They also have to see if the child has a record and was at least 16, but under 18, when the new crime happened. The DA can charge the child as an adult if they are charged with Is charged with 1st degree murder, attempted, premeditated murder, aggravated kidnapping

Thirteen-year-old boy, Cristian Fernandez of Jacksonville, Florida was born on January 14 of 1999 to a mother who was as old as he is today. On March 15 2011, he was arrested relating to the alleged beating of his 2-year-old brother, David. At the time of his arrest, David was under care of St. Luke’s Hospital, receiving treatment for injuries he sustained the day before. It states that Cristian shoved his 2-year-old brother against a bookshelf, causing the young child to have severe head damage. Cristian’s mom, who was only 24 at the time, arrived at the apartment to reveal what happened just moments before. However, it states that his mom did not even call the police or take her son to the hospital

The United States sentences more juveniles to death than any other nation in the world (Justice, 2009) and our juveniles are being sentenced as young as ten years of age. These are juveniles being tried as adults, and something has to change and change fast. The younger generation is supposed to be our future leaders. How will our juveniles or the citizens of this country prevail if this continues we won’t be able to because most of our future leaders will be prisoner. (B, 2005)

Teenagers who commit serious violent crimes are being tried as adults. When a child kills, does he or she instantly become an adult or do they maintain some trappings of their childhood, despite the gravity of their actions? This is the question that is haunting the American legal system today, and this is a hard query, after following the acts of violence that some juveniles are continuously drawn to, and some keep returning to even after they have served time in the juvenile system. If society looked at the habitual relapse rates of adult offenders throughout the country, that it’s very obvious this punitive system is not working. From one standpoint, if the justice system locks an adult up for life, and he or she is never released, society

According to Caldwell (1961) the juvenile justice system is based on the principle that youth are developmentally and fundamentally different from adults. According to Mack (1909) the focus of the juvenile justice system has shifted from “was the crime committed” to “why did the child commit the crime”, “how can we help the child”. When performing as it is designed and up to the initial intentions, the juvenile court balances rehabilitation (treatment) of the offender with suitable sanctions when necessary such as incarceration. According to Griffin (2008) in some cases juveniles may be required to be “transferred” to adult court. In this paper I am going to discuss the three primary mechanisms of waiver to adult court: judicial waiver

The dilemma of whether or not to transfer juveniles to adult court has been a major topic, for many years, in the United States. Since 1899, judges have had the option to transfer juveniles to adult court. The major factor for transferring juveniles to adult court since then has been the seriousness of the offense. That being said, juveniles only make up a small portion of violent crimes in the United States. Only 16 percent of juvenile offenders in 2008 were arrested for violent crimes (Champion,2008). The problem is the determination of whether the crime is serious enough to be waived and transferred to adult court. Almost every state has statutory judicial waiver provisions, which grant juvenile judges the authority to transfer

Regardless of age, a killer is a killer. A killer can be the daily customer you have at your job or the child you’re babysitting. “The Supreme Court justices would be wise as well as compassionate to strike a balance: Make juvenile offenders responsible for their actions but don't completely rob them of hope. And this should apply not only to the inmates who were 14 at the time of their crimes but to the remaining 2,497 who were 15 to 18 years old,” (Ellison 19). Kids make mistakes all the time, that doesn’t mean we should take their life away from them. With overlooking the listed factors in court when sentencing a juvenile, this will improve the number of children in prisons. Not all of these children partake in the act because of evil, but merely because of

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 10,000 juveniles are confined in adult prisons and jails rather than in juvenile facilities that were built for them. Josh Rovner reports in his article “Juvenile Life Without Parole: An Overview” that 2,100 child offenders are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole before the age of 18. In 26 states, a life without parole sentence is mandatory for first degree murder – regardless of age. Juveniles housed in adult prisons face a disturbing number of dangers such as physical as well as sexual abuse, assault, and high rates of suicide. While juveniles should be held accountable for their actions, they should not be prosecuted as adults because they are incapable of exercising the same judgement and maturity as an adult, housing them in adult facilities leaves them vulnerable to their surroundings, limits their educational growth and giving out a harsh sentence will not rehabilitate them nor deter other juvenile crime.

Today we are talking about if juvenile justice systems are beneficial or not. In my opinion I think they are because the correctional officers are always trying their best to let these kids have another chance to change their lives. In addition people might say that if you put a juvenile in a justice system that it won’t make a difference but I don’t think so. They actually have proof that the kids do change. According to the article “Character-building, not jail time, in a Texas juvenile court program” it states “the program is about more than simply telling the boys to stay out of trouble. He and his team teach the boy’s life lessons about accountability, respect, responsibility and empathy.” Which is stating that even

Did you know, that in the United States alone, Over 200,000 children are charged and imprisoned every year as adults? Early in the 20th century, most states established juvenile courts to rehabilitate and not just punish youthful offenders. The system was designed for children to have a second chance at their lives. “A separate juvenile-justice system, which sought to rehabilitate and not just punish children, was part of a movement by progressives to create a legally defined adolescence through the passage of child-labor and compulsory education laws and the creation of parks and open spaces.”(How to reduce crime Pg 1) Although the view on juveniles committing brutal crimes is nearly inconceivable, it is not a solution to give juveniles adult consequences because the effects of the adult system on juveniles are not effective.