Running head: CHILDREN WHO KILL Jon Venables and Robert Thompson: Children who kill Letia Bland Tiffin University Assignment #1 Dr. Joyce Hall-Yates The Juvenile justice system has changed over the years. Before the first establishment of this system, courts and judges treated juveniles as adults and sometimes received the same punishment as adults. For many years, there were debates on if children before the age of 21 were responsible for their actions seeing as they aren’t fully capable of understanding their actions. This murder of Jamie Bulger created an uproar all over the world on children at such a young age know right from wrong and also violence. Backgrounds, and family upbringing and violence in the media had played a …show more content…
Once she had noticed the boy she quickly called the police and the two boys were arrested for questioning. The simple fact that the boys were so young came as a shock to the investigators of the case. Forensic tests had made it definite that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as the same paint that was found on Bulger’s body. Both boys, Thompson and Venables also had blood on their shoes which matched Bulger’s DNA. The boys were charged with Bulger’s murder on February 20, 1993 and remained in custody until the trial. After the arrest, and throughout the trial, the boys were referred to as Child A and Child B. At the end of the whole trial, the judge released the two boy’s names since the nature of the crime was severe and also the public’s reaction to the whole case. They were identified and also came along with descriptive detail about the lives of the two boys and also their backgrounds. The release of the boy’s mug shots shocked the public because of the ages of Thompson and Venables. During the trial there were debates on how both children were not in control of their actions which meant that they couldn’t be held responsible for their actions. Many psychiatrists had tried to find the reason that made the two boys’ create such a horrific crime. One forensic psychiatrist stated that examining
But change that to an eight year old boy and his friends, and everyone’s opinion changes. They want to coddle the children and blame the violence on the parents, video games or social media. How does one word, juvenile, change the world’s mind so quickly-because it is in human’s nature to care for the young. People see children as clay to be melded into the perfect model of a person. When these children do something bad, they see the molder to be at fault. It is like they have they never seen a child misbehave when they are “molded” well. Children have their own brains and ideas. These ideas are their own and they are not only based on others in lives. The important thing is to see that juveniles are not children, “In the words of one 'get-tough' advocate, juvenile offenders are criminals who happen to be young, not children who happen to be criminal’” (ABC News). This perfectly sums up what juvenile crime is. It is not about the child, it is about the victim. If a juvenile is capable of committing a crime and planning it out, they should be tried for it. In one case, a boy murdered a woman after breaking into her house and her seeing his face. Instead of acting innocent, he was proud of what he had done, “Simmons wasn’t modest about what he had done; to the contrary, he had
This event was a very unfortunate tragedy, although it was used as an opportunity to create a new legal precedent which determines whether or not a child can be convicted for crimes though to be classified as an ‘adult crime’, for example, manslaughter. Doli incapax, assumes that any child aged 10-14 is incapable of criminal intent unless proven otherwise.
This case was one of truth and justice. It becomes evident when the Juror 9 says to Juror 10. Do you think you have a monopoly on truth?' [Juror 9, page 8] The fact is, nobody really knows what the truth is, and at the end of the play, still nobody does. The boy may have been guilty, but as Juror 8 pointed out, who were they to make that assumption? Most of the Jurors had taken for granted that what the prosecution had told them was the truth. Through much discussion the Jurors realised that this may
In the article “On Punishment and Teen Killers” by Jennifer Jenkins asserts that teens are becoming more violent and starting commit more crimes because of the national television they watch.Jenkins tells the reader about “JLWOP” (Juvenile Life Without Parole) and how kids are being sentenced to life in prison without parole.Some people are trying to advocate to minimize the offender culpability because of their age.While kids are getting sentenced to life without parole, this disproves juvenile advocates reliance on the undeveloped brain.Some juvenile offenders truly understand what the victim family go through and how long it takes them to recover.There were millions of dollars spent to end JLWOP and to set convicted murderers free.
Through cases such as Roper v. Simmons we are able to acknowledge and see the motions that bring juveniles into committing crime. Not only through his case but through research it is noted that that maturity/ brain development, peer influence/pressure, communication with parents, social differences, and insufficient education has a high leverage on the existence of juvenile crime. Christopher Simmons at 17 murdered Shirley Crook and was initially sentenced to death.
Without knowing any of the details of this crime, it’s easy to become very upset over the animosity that one would need to feel in order to follow through with the atrocious operation committed by the two boys.
Particularly due to the age of the killers, the ferociousness of the crime and the age of the victim, the mass media reports allowed the public to get personally and emotionally involved in the case and have severe anger and resentment towards the children who murdered James Bulger. The public outcry was huge and, the decision by the politicians and press
There are many similarities and differences between the adult and juvenile justice systems. Although juvenile crimes have increased in violence and intensity in the last decade, there is still enough difference between the two legal proceedings, and the behaviors themselves, to keep the systems separated. There is room for changes in each structure. However, we cannot treat/punish juvenile offenders the way we do adult offenders, and vice versa. This much we know. So we have to find a way to merge between the two. And, let’s face it; our juveniles are more important to us in the justice system. They are the group at they
of the brutal slayings. It was concluded that both should be tried in an adult
Firstly, murder is a crime which carries a distinctive reaction from the public at large. Moreover, when it is the murder of a child, in this case children, the dynamic greatly changes. The triple murder of Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers in
The two boys were found and were asked about the situation, but they were never found guilty of raping the girl and were let go. After this the stepfather was put under suspicion himself of the crime because his stepdaughter had told someone that he had committed the crime, and he was tried and found guilty of the rape of L.H. (Cornell).
The shocking revelation has made the death difficult to explain, and the fact that the only known witness to the crime is another young child also makes it hard to investigate. Lewis said “We don’t normally have 5-year-olds as primary witnesses.”
In the James Bulger case many witnesses were reluctant to speak up until after the child was found dead. According to The Sun (2018), “ The killers walked James for two and half miles and were spotted by 38 people – some of whom challenged the pair. These ten year old boys were claiming James as their little brother or James was lost and they were trying to help him find his mum when questions came about. According to The Sun (2018), “The pair took James to a railway line and tortured, beat and sexually assaulted him. They poured modelling paint into his eyes, stoned him and clubbed him with bricks, before leaving him on the railway line to be hit by a train. After killing the tot they left his body near the tracks where it was discovered two days later.” With all the information the boys presented, who would have believed there true intentions were to kill?
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
Evaluation of the Statement that Hitting Children is Wrong this statement in the form of an