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
They have committed drug and alcohol crimes such as drunk and disorderly, drug abuse, sexual offenses, such as prostitution and rape. There are instances where juveniles are tried as adults depending on the offense, the severity of the crime and age. Juveniles have been sentenced to a life sentences and have also stood on death row. I think that if a juvenile at the age of 15 or 16 commits a crime violent or not and knowingly knows that it is wrong should suffer the consequences of his actions. I think if the court can prove intent, mental stability, has evidence and can show the juvenile understood his actions he should be liable.
For certain crimes, children should have to face the consequences of their "adult" actions, and should be tried as adults. If a juvenile
There are times juveniles should not be convicted as adults because sometimes the “crimes” may not harsh enough to be charged as an adult. For example, if a 8 year old saw a gun in their mother's purse and thought it was a toy and grabbed it and began to shoot who would be at fault ? Plus children in adult prisons are 10 times more likely to be taken advantage of in their time. Research shows that children prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system are more likely to reoffend than those held in the juvenile justice
Many of these juveniles lack the maturity to handle situations such as adult prisons. Most of the children who are tried as adults lose hope for their future and no hope for them to ever become anything but a criminal. Judges in juvenile courts have the power to impose curfews, house arrest and counseling to offenders rather than send them straight to jail. Juveniles are impressionable and likely to end up becoming involved in a gang or other crime activities when they are locked up with
How then can we single out certain minors and call them adults? Across the United States, thousands of children have been sentenced as adults and sent to adult prisons (Equal Justice). Children as young as 13 years old have been tried as adults and sentenced to die in prison (Youth Justice). This is because that children may have committed a serious crime or may have been documented within the judicial system, based from their previous records. In today’s time, we have become quite accustomed to hearing that a young child is being tried as an adult. We as a society are not doing anything good by trying kids as adults, and therefore should not have children be tried as adults because children are vulnerable of suffering mental and physical violence in jails, they are able to rehabilitate, and we as people are ending a human being’s life. Therefore, it is important to know the problems associated with trying children as adults, the causes of trying children as adults, and the solution to stop trying children as adults in the judicial system.
Crime and punishment seems to be the hot topic in modern society. People from different age ranges go to different levels of prison, depending on what they have done. Sometime juveniles are tried and sent to prisons suited for adult crimes if it’s serious enough. Should we tried juveniles as adults if the criminal act is severe enough? What impact does it have on the juveniles? Would juveniles being tried as adults than being tried as juveniles yield a better outcome? Is there a benefit from juveniles being tried as adults?
There has been many instances of kids under the age of 18 who have commited multiple kinds of crimes, and since they are juveniles, they got an easier sentence compared to a 30-40 year old person who commited the same crime. This is an example of how our judging system is showing kids that if they commit a crime, they might only get 30 hours of community service, while if the kid was an
Over the last few decades there have been more and more violent crimes committed by children and young adults. Some of these children are under the age of 15, committing violent crimes such as robbery, rape, murder, gang violence. Some of these children are being tried as adults while others are tried and punished as juveniles. A juvenile offender may receive a slap on the wrist being sentenced to house arrest or parole while others are being sent to adult prisons without the possibility of parole. An adult committing these same crimes would receive a more sever sentenced.
Today, the juvenile system primary goals are crime reduction and rehabilitation. The juvenile officials must assess whether youthful offenders are likely to commit crimes in the future and whether they can benefit from interventions. If these kids cannot benefit, then they will most like end up a delinquent. In most states delinquency is defined as the commission of a criminal act by a child who was under the age of 18 at that time (Virginia Rules). Most states allow youth to remain under the supervision of the juvenile court until the age of 21, but this depends on the type of crime that was committed. There has been many times where a juvenile case was transferred to an adult criminal court. This would have to be done thru a process called a waiver. A waiver is when a judge waives the protections that the juvenile court provides (Larry J. Siegel). Cases that
Imagine sitting in a courtroom, hoping the the judge will not give a harsh sentence. Unfortunately, that’s the case for many juveniles, some as young as 13! A juvenile is subject to a more severe sentence with the limited sentencing available. It is estimated that 250,000 youth are prosecuted as adults, each year. This number should change, as juveniles are not adults, both mentally and physically. Juveniles need an environment surrounded with guiding adults, education and the resources to help them. A juvenile is not an adult, and should not be tried as one.
The juvenile justice system exists to separate the youth from the adults that are imprisoned. The separation exists because of the different levels of maturity that are present between the two age groups. These young offenders are not arrested for the reason of punishment; they are arrested to be rehabilitated so they do not become habitual offenders later on in life. It gives them the opportunity to see what life will be like for them if they are to be adult offenders. With that being said, there are some instances where these young adults are to be tried as an adult offender with an adult punishment. Throughout most of history, young offenders were tried by the same courts as those that tried adults and were subject to the same sanction which does include execution and incarceration. (Masters, p 450, 2013) There are some places that truly believe that young criminals shouldn’t be treated like adults, such as in England. There is a law in affect called the “infancy defense” which says that children under the age of 7 are not to be tried as adults because they haven’t yet formed criminal intent. A child that was between the ages of 7 and 14 could be prosecuted but only if the prosecutor could prove that the child knew what they were doing was wrong. (Lectric Law Library, 2003) Lawmakers and social scientists found that those who were found guilty
No matter their age, when it comes to serious offenses juveniles should be tried as adults because the understanding of what is right and wrong is known by young children, if they have the ability to commit a crime they should be charged as adults, and without them being trying
In conclusion, juveniles tried as adults is unjust. Juveniles should not be tried as adults for several reasons -- because considering young people as adults alters the legal process, because there is a difference of legal standards in adult and juvenile courts, because the brains of young people are not fully mature until their mid and late twenties, and because adult courts do not offer rehabilitative programs
Should juveniles get adult jail sentences? In today's society juvenile offenders are facing the law to full force, in two court systems. Not only are they tried in the juvenile justice system, but also charged as adults. The issue of charging juveniles as adults has stirred various views owing to the violent crimes committed by the young offenders. Politicians comment that the best solution is to lock up juvenile offenders for a long time and ignore rehabilitation. However, prior researches on the topic of juvenile delinquencies suggest that trying young offenders in the adult legal system and putting them in adult prisons will only lead to increased crime, higher costs, and increased violence(John & Jiangmin 568).
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.