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Juveniles Tried As Adults

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Juveniles being punished as adults Based on the severity of the crime, should juveniles be punished as adults? We all know there are troubled kids out there that wind up in trouble. The trouble kids may get in could possibly end them up in jail. “At most, a juvenile court can order a young person to be confined up to age 23, while a youth charged as an adult can face sentencing as serious as life without the possibility of parole” ( Vaughan 1 ). There are many factors why juveniles are tried and punished as adults. Some reasons for example are the severity of the crime they committed, the juvenile's age, mental issues they may have, and their association to the crime. In some cases Juveniles are tried and punished as adults because of …show more content…

Depending on what they did to be involved in a crime, the juvenile could possibly be wrongly punished and sent to jail. A kid named Bobby Garcia from the article “ A deficit of hope” was sentenced as an adult for twenty five years to life, just for being associated in a robbery. “ There are thousands of kids like Garcia, who are serving in adult prisons or serving long-term sentences for crimes they committed as minors” ( Hannum 1 ). The thing is kids are being wrongly punished in some cases, not all, but some. “Kids were being locked up for offenses that would have previously earned them a trip to the vice principal’s office, not jail, and kids were serving longer sentences for actual crimes” ( Hannum 2 ). Juveniles can be sentenced for periods of time so long it usually prohibits them from many things they could or hoped to accomplish in their lifetime, such as getting married, having children , possibly joining the military, etc. “The determination whether a young person is prosecuted in juvenile court or in the adult criminal court is at its core a question about punishment” ( Vaughan 1 ). Young juveniles could have possibly just been in the wrong place at the wrong time when a crime is committed so therefore they could end up being punished as an adult if the court decides that. Kids that are associated to a crime and put in jail sometimes should maybe be given a second chance or have their part in the case looked at differently depending on the role they played in the crime that was

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