Matter In Early Adulthood

Garinger was a former juvenile court judge, so Garinger is a very credible source when it comes to the topic of juvenile criminals. To support Garinger’s credible usage of ethos, he demonstrates that in 2005, Supreme Court acknowledged that even though juveniles have committed terrible crimes such as homicide “juvenile offenders cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders” (6). This technique of providing the opinions of Supreme Court helps build Garinger’s credibility, and even more so that he is was a former juvenile court judges, so he most likely has a personal relationships with the Supreme Court. Readers feel sympathy to any juvenile who have been charged as adults and been sentenced to life without parole.

“In the late 1980s, Robert Sampson and John Laub stumbled across the files from a decades-old research project conducted by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck of the Harvard Law School. This study that followed young boys from childhood into early adulthood and led them to question previous criminological research practice and develop their age-graded theory. It has been said that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Therefore, it is no surprise that, when criminologists study adult offenders, they discover almost all of them committed crimes as an adolescent. However, it is not logical to assume that everyone who engages in crime as an adolescent will commit crimes as an adult. Moreover, if one continues this faulty line of reasoning

Ultimately this course provided me with new ideas on how to handle certain situations in several criminal justice occupations. This course relates very well to officer discretion, corruption and discrimination. In today’s society police officers are faced with problematic situation each day and although we cannot teach fight or flight in a classroom we can try to learn what not to do in a difficult situation. When observing the different controversial decisions that are being made, you learn that when police officers are faced with critical and life changing decisions officers do not have the convenience of time. The decisions are made while that person has adrenalin rushing through their bodies and time moving faster than any person can anticipate. This is the synopsis of ethical issues, the different controversial decisions that must be made as a police officer, judge or correctional officer. What is the correct decision being the topic for discussion? A discussion in which the professor allows all voices to be heard so that we all can learn from one another perspectives.

Consequently, teenagers are often impetuous and have a difficult time controlling their emotions. However, this does not serve as an excuse for committing crimes with great magnitude such as murder. In The Sacramento Bee, Greg Krikorian published the results of a study conducted by a University of Massachusetts professor in an article titled “Many Kids Called Unfit for Adult Trial.” According to the findings of the study, “performance in reasoning and understanding for youths ages sixteen and seventeen did not differ from those at least eighteen years of age.” (Greg Krikorian 7) Although younger teenagers may not have the same reasoning potential, based on the performed study, sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds, in comparison to adults, have very similar thinking abilities. Thus, the brain development of these teenagers is almost, if not completely, finished. As a result, trying teenagers ages sixteen and up as juveniles is not fair to adult convicts, considering the fact that both groups have the same reasoning abilities. Thus, juveniles ages sixteen and up should be tried as adults. However undeveloped their brains may be, teenagers fully understand the consequences of their

Ethical studies in criminal justice is important because it provides the professionals with a platform for making noble choices when faced with unsure situations of moral concern. In this case, they require a system of rules as a guide in making complex moral decisions. Consequently, criminal justice professionals will develop analytical skills and reasoning potential in discerning the practical and theoretical aspects of their profession’s system. Additionally, an ethical insight eliminates inexperience in moral issues, hence enabling them to easily identify ethical consequences and moral code of conduct. Therefore, the awareness of criminal justice professionals on matters pertaining to

“I think it's important for us as a society to remember that the youth within juvenile justice systems are, most of the time, youths who simply haven't had the right mentors and supporters around them because of circumstances beyond their control,” (qtd. in Brainy Quotes) are wise words from Q'orianka Kilcher, a human rights activist. Many Americans feel adolescents should be held accountable for their behavior; however, trying them as if they are adults is not always the optimum course of action. Because the teenage brain matures from back to front, the prefrontal cortex is not established until mid-twenties. Ordinarily adolescents can be rehabilitated in order to avert future offending; yet when tried as an adult, all hope for rehabilitation is lost. A one time mistake will follow an adolescent around for the rest of his/her life, dramatically decreasing the opportunities for success. Trying adolescents as adults is an injustice due to their lack of rationality and potential for rehabilitation.

From watching kids my age attempt to recover what respect they have lost from committing a crime, It has been reinforced in my mind how important good choices are. I have a vivid memory of my first time on the jury of Teen Court where the defendant was only 9-years-old. He had committed such a serious crime that officials considered sending him to a real court to await sentencing, but instead of pleading for his innocence he accepted that what he had done was wrong and began to speak about his future. This young boy spoke about his dreams to become an NFL football player, but his mistakes could jeopardize it. This memory is a constant reminder for me to follow a path that will be beneficial to my future instead of damage it.

It is understood that at an early age, it is impossible to some advocates, for children to have the mental ability like that of a normal adult, to plan and execute a crime and moreover to understand the consequences of it. Therefore it is controversial where or not to try them as adults. During the adolescent years, it is asserted that a child becomes mature and begins to understand important concepts like society and expectations they are still trying to deal with society, their own inner battles of peer pressure, lack of direction, impulsiveness and lack of identity, according to the Legal and Justice Center. At

The passion to deliver justice in all situations is interconnected to distributive justice and corrective justice. In corrective justice, offenders are expected to be disciplined for their evil deeds and this corresponds with my value and passion for justice. The application of correction justice is also associated with morality which plays a significant role. This is because of the relationship with law and morality and the need, as a criminal justice professional, to understand how and where to draw the line between law. The challenge in correctly identifying a distinct relationship between morality and law is ignited by the observation that law does not include every moral concern. For example, while it may be agreed by a majority of citizens that lying, in most instances is immoral; there are others that may argue that specific laws barring lying do not exist, safe for laws that forbid perjury, numerous types of fraud and additional institutions. The linkage between morality and law can thus be seen as tricky because it is possible to engage in what may broadly be perceived as an immoral act, yet the act is not illegal. Thus, it can be assumed that a person may be perceived as a good person that does the right thing does not necessarily qualify being a law-abiding person. Therefore, it emerges that the issue of morality and law should be

Ethics in the criminal justice system is customary when the administration measures are sometime virtuous and imperfect, attractive and unattractive and the ideas of production values are perceptive that this may be right and wrong. Working in the criminal justice system, every decision and results must meet the needs of the citizens and the law enforcement in regards to the balancing concern. The concerns are from prosecuting the guilty and respecting the right of the accused, protecting the victims, and creating a safe community. This paper will give analysis of the critical thinking concerning the relationship between ethics and professional behavior role of the law enforcement

Making poor decisions is a rite of passage in the life of a teenager. But what happens when making a poor decision results in unforeseen consequences that can lead to the destruction of an individual’s adult life. For some juveniles, those poor decisions consist of the commission of criminal offenses, which can automatically set them up for failure in their adult lives.

Today, the world people live in has a great little regard for ethics and unfortunately, it is not so surprising. Society is more and more focused on centering on material possessions and putting so much emphasis on one’s self that individuals often forget those around them. However, the world of criminal justice contains an area of expertise that requires a select few to be able to serve others around them. With the opportunity to serve such a wide variety of people, conflict can arise fairly quickly. These conflicts allow those in criminal justice careers such as law enforcement, courts, and corrections, to be able to not only act justly, but also apply ethical principles in their decisions.

In an age where violent crime is more dominant than ever and morality is not heard of, there arise many problems that result from each other. The past thirty years, our society has been determined to secularize itself and to separate from many moral standards that root from the Bible. Since moral values were removed from schools in the 1960's, crime and immorality has steadily risen. It is evident that declining morals has a direct effect on the crime rate.

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg is widely known for his proposed stages of moral development; he argued that the development of moral reasoning “is a continual process that occurs throughout the lifespan.” (Cherry). Moreover, Kohlberg’s stages of moral development involve three levels, namely: the preconventional moral reasoning, conventional moral reasoning and postconventional moral reasoning. Each of these levels consists of two stages. Furthermore, we will examine Kohlberg’s stages of moral development by creating a character named Ciara. Ciara is a mischievous, temperamental and aggressive 11-year old who studies at a christian school. Throughout this essay we will see how Ciara’s moral reasoning will evolve.

It is also worth noting that demographically, the social environment or experiences of an individual play a succinct role in the psychosocial developmentof the person’s different stages of development. In reference to Erik Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development, it is critical for individuals to develop their ego identity, behavioral competence as they are critical in addressing specific societal virtues and psychosocial crises (Erikson, & Coles, 2000). Additionally, Kohlberg’s moral development theory asserts that an individual’s future is affected by different demographic factors. The theory primarily concerns three stages namely pre- conventional, conventional and post-conventional stagesthat are in turn helpful in the description of new and comprehensive individuals’ personalities (Kohlberg, & Hersh, 1977). The pre-convention stage especially in relation to criminal justice concerns the moral reasoning levels of the judges in relation to the morality of an action and factors influencing it as in the case of a felony trail (Kohlberg, & Hersh, 1977). The convention stage of moral development tackles the jury’sjudgment methods for the morality of actions of the criminals through