Argumentative Essay On Juveniles

The data for this project was collected by administering an anonymous survey to incarcerated juveniles at (name of facility), the (name) receiving center and at the NAACP office in Sacramento, California. The survey asked for gender and parental status (incarcerated versus not incarcerated). Participants were given a paper survey and a pencil to complete the survey. See Appendix for a copy of the survey.

In the United States each year, children as young as 13 are sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison without any opportunity for release. It’s been proven that at an early age, it is impossible for children to have the mental ability like that of an adult.

Today, we live in a society faced with many problems, including crime and the fear that it creates. In the modern era, juveniles have become a part of society to be feared, not rehabilitated. The basis of the early juvenile justice system was to rehabilitate and create safe havens for wayward youth. This is not the current philosophy, although the U.S. is one of the few remaining countries to execute juveniles. Presently, our nation is under a presidential administration that strongly advocates the death penalty, including the execution of juveniles. The media and supporters of capital punishment warn of the "superpredator," the juvenile with no fear, remorse, or conscience. Opponents of this view encourage

In today's society juveniles are being tried in adult courts, given the death penalty, and sent to prison. Should fourteen-year olds accused of murder or rape automatically be tried as adults? Should six-teen year olds and seven-teen year olds tried in adult courts be forced to serve time in adult prisons, where they are more likely to be sexually assaulted and to become repeat offenders. How much discretion should a judge have in deciding the fate of a juvenile accused of a crime - serious, violent, or otherwise? The juvenile crime rate that was so alarming a few years ago has begun to fall - juvenile felony arrest rates in California have declined by more than forty percent in the last twenty years. While

Finally, I believe that by being rehabilitated the juvenile will have a better chance at life because eventually they will be back in society.

As a child becomes a teenager they go from knowing right from wrong to having the ability to do more things without parental supervision. This kind of freedom without having someone to monitor your actions can lead to these young people doing things they

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

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)

When it comes to kids, we tend to baby them. We organize their lives and set limits on everything. If they want to do something outside those limits we tell them they are not old enough or they have not experienced enough of the world yet. After all, what can they possibly know about love, major decisions, and what is best for them? Yet somehow, despite all this, when they commit a crime we turn into hypocrites. Magically, they are geniuses who know everything about the world. In society’s eyes, they are no longer a child, but a monster.

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.

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.

The topic of juveniles justice and whether or not to charge teen criminals in adult courts and sentence them to audit prisons is one issue that is always up for debate. Media plays a huge role on juvenile crimes they show the worst about it and not any positive which makes many people feel that there's a huge problem going on with the juvenile justice. Minors should not be charged as adults or be sentenced to adult prisons without knowing the background or the circumstances.Not every kid that commits a crime will grow up to be a criminal, brain studies show that teens are unable to make decisions efficiently which causes them to make the wrong decision, children from juvenile court to adult court actually increases crime, kids take risks in adult prisons and bring justice for extreme crimes.

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

Juveniles can be tried as adults for crimes ranging from kidnapping, murder, rape, arson, robbery, torture, assault, and more. Some of the cases that are sent to adult court are petty crimes, such as: underage drinking, possession of a controlled substance, and other minor crimes. The question is whether they should be tried as adults. These are all adult actions, on one hand, and may lead a person to wonder what brought a child to commit these crimes. One might further inspect that if a child or teenager is engaged in so-called “adult” activities, what kind of activities might a child choose to be involved in adulthood? What is the child’s background? Can you blame the child of a heroin addict for having access to drugs at a young age? Can you blame the child of a murderer for acting out? Yes, everyone has a choice even a child.

In my own opinion, I consider juveniles as immature because they lack the ability to recognize the long term impact of their actions as they have decreased levels of responsibility. Therefore, the justice system should not charge juveniles in adult legal system and sentence them as adults.Trying juveniles as adults exposes the young offenders to state penitentiaries up to life in prison without parole and even sentenced to death. This raises a question on how truly effective treating juveniles as adults are to the young offenders. As the crimes committed by juveniles increase, there has been an outcry from the public and affected to prosecute juveniles accused of serious crimes as adults. It is true that juveniles do