Juveniles Should Be Tried As Adults Essay

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

Minors accused of committing serious infractions should be tried as adults and given equal sentences for equal crimes. It does not make sense that a different age would require a different system to prosecute a lawbreaker, minor or not. The design and goals for the Juvenile System is different from our criminal justice system. According to Juvenile vs. Adult Criminal System, it states, “If the juvenile is found to be delinquent, appropriate action in the form of rehabilitation will be taken. In the adult criminal system, action is taken that is intended to punish the defendant”, The approach of an adult court is justice, and giving appropriate consequences for people’s actions.

So should juvenile offenders be punished and tried as adults? Juveniles who do their own thing and go with the flow of doing terrible activities, they’re the ones who get sent to jail. If they’re doing illegal substances, hurting people, causing drama, then they do need to be sent to jail. Children should not be allowed to do their own thing just because they are older, mature, or is just a good kid in general. No parent knows what their own child is doing in their free time when they’re not around.

It is rare that an under-18 year old juvenile defendant winds up in adult court. Some try to put an end to the case but it doesn’t always happen in any possible way, no matter the crime and no matter the criminal. But can they really prove that adult punishment is never appropriate for juveniles who’ve committed adult crimes? 39 states permit or require that youth charged as adults be held in an adult jail before they are trialed. Though as many as a half of them will not be convicted or will be sent back to the juvenile justice system, most will have spent at least one month in the adult jail, and one in five of them will have spent over six months there.

Should juveniles be tried as adults? There are many conflicts to this question.Many people say no and others say yes. Today many juveniles that commit serious crimes do get tried as adults. Violent crimes are committed in the United States every day. Almost one-half of them are committed by teenagers ages 13 through 17. In 2015 there were seven thousand juveniles that were tried as an adult. I do believe that juveniles should be tried as adults because anyone who commits a serious crime should be punished, the boy has the capacity to understand what they are doing, and these young adults are old enough to take responsibility for their actions.

Everywhere around the United States, there are troubled adolescents who are able to either get away with crimes or have little consequence if they are caught. According to the office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, there were about 300,000 violent crimes in the United States. These crimes include manslaughter, murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Although, the number is lower than two decades ago, the number is still present. There are punk kids out in the world who take advantage of the criminal justice system. They may be violent offenders, but the justice system takes it easy on them. I believe that teens should be tried as adults in the court of law because the adolescents have control of themselves, if a children commits a heinous crime they should not be taken easily, and children understand crimes at a younger age.

People may think that kids wouldn’t be able to do a crime as bad as a grown person. On the news, internet, or social media, people see what horrible crimes some people commit and some of those people are juveniles. What is a juvenile? The definition is of, for, or relating to young people, and in this case, having to do with young people committing crimes. These crimes include murder, rape, and others. Furthermore, in some cases, juveniles are tried as adults. This can lead to major funding and/or imprisonment. I do not believe this is the correct answer for dealing with juveniles. Young people aren’t mature, mentally and physically, enough to survive in jail. They are also irresponsible and receptive to their surroundings. For an example,

Lastly according to an article by Gail Garinger “they are less mature, more venerable to peer pressure, cannot escape from dangerous environments, and their character is under impression” (Garinger). The adolescent years are a very hard time in someone’s life. Unlike adults it is much more difficult for youths to get away from bad situations, because youths cannot get away it sometimes causes them to be stuck in a position where they feel they need to act often making the wrong decision. Juveniles are not adults; to put them in the same judicial process as adults does not make

Juveniles and adults have been segregated in just about every aspect of life for most of this country’s history. Juveniles are equal to adults, obviously, but they are not entitled to the same privileges and are not subjected to the same responsibility as adults are. But for some reason, juveniles must be considered as adults when it comes to the court system. Adolescents should definitely be punished for their inexcusable actions, but they still have lots of years of maturation ahead of them before they are fully developed mentally.

“I used to believe are our future but now I realize that this, sadly isn’t the reality. Through laws that treat kids like adults, the government is throwing away the future of children in this country.” (D. Lee) An estimated 200,000 juveniles are tried as adults. The term juvenile refers to any young person under the age of 18. For most states in the United States, the age of majority is 18. While there are many things that juveniles are unable to do until they reach the age of 18, being charged as an adult for a crime is not amongst those things in some states. Juveniles are not allowed to vote, drink alcohol, or sign a legal contract, yet they can be charged and treated like adults when it comes to them being

Juveniles deserve to be tried the same as adults when they commit certain crimes. The justice systems of America are becoming completely unjust and easy to break through. Juvenile courts haven’t always been known to the everyday person.

Juveniles should be tried as adults because the juvenile system can no longer keep up. The juvenile system was created to take care of small crimes like shoplifting or vandalism. Back then crimes weren’t as advanced as they are today and that's because of technology. In today's time crime rates are rising and becoming more violent and the laws simply can’t meet to those needs. “juvenile crime has increased 20% in the past five decades”(vecchio). Although the juvenile system

Should juveniles be tried as adults? Some people disagree and others agree. Juveniles can be tired as adults committing crimes such as a DUI,minor in possession,robbery,rape,murder and any other crimes committed by an adult. The juveniles can be punished under the juvenile law. The juvenile law states that although most states try juveniles crime cases in juvenile court when the offenders is younger than 18, a few states have younger cutoffs (Juvenile Law). The treatment and successful reintegration of youth into society are the primary goals of the juvenile justice system, along with overall public safety (Juvenile Justice System). There are eight steps the juvenile justice process generally goes through which is

“In 2008, police arrested an estimated 2.1 million persons under the age of 18. The majority of these juveniles (67%) were referred to juvenile court jurisdiction. The police used discretion to handle and release a portion (22%) of these youths” (Lopez 2016). That means that 273,000 juveniles were prosecuted and punished as adults, some even receiving life in prison. This begs the question should juveniles, regardless of offense, be tried as adults?

A variety of ages are guilty for numerous crimes. Any age of a criminal is a threat to the public. Juveniles deserve to be treated like adults.