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Juvenile Life Without Parole Essay

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Minors Being Tried and Charged as Adults There are 2,225 child offenders serving life without parole in the United States(“united states: thousands of children sentenced to life without parole”). Around 93% of minors sentenced to life without parole were convicted of first degree murder (“united states: thousands of children sentenced to life without parole”). As of 2018, 42 states in America have passed laws allowing minors to receive life sentences based on certain crimes(“united states: thousands of children sentenced to life without parole”). Although charging minors as adults may seem extensive and harmful, many take into account the irreversible effects on the victim’s family, the mindset and background contributions, and the fact that …show more content…

Common sense seems to dictate that over 79% of child offenders witnessed violence in their homes regularly (“Juvenile life Without Parole”). Fewer than half were attending school at the time of the crime committed and the other 40% were enrolled in special education classes (“Juvenile life Without Parole”). Without a stable upbringing these children were pre-exposed to evil and violence, scientists recently noted that over 32% grew up in public housing (“Juvenile Life Without Parole”). Starting out as victims themselves, 80% of girls reported physical abuse and 71% reported sexual abuse (“Juvenile Life Without Parole”). Being set in this early mindset of revenge and hate in their hearts these children are pushed towards wrong doing. Approximately 16% of minors charged with life without parole are between the ages of 13 and 15 (“ United States: Thousands of children sentenced to life without parole”). Hispanic and black racial backgrounds tend to have harsher sentencing on young offenders rather than those of caucasian background. Black youth receive life without parole sentences at a rate 10 times higher than white youth (“United States: Thousands of Children Sentenced to Life without Parole”). Black ratio of 6.6 vs. 0.6, hispanic is 13.2 vs. 1.3 (“United States: Thousands of Children Sentenced to Life without

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