Rodney Hulin: Should Children Be Tried As Adults?

In the film 15 to Life: Kenneth’s Story by Nadine Pequeneza the account of Kenneth Young appealing his sentence of four life terms without the possibility of parole is detailed. Young was only 15 years-old when he was charged as an adult for armed robbery and sentenced to life behind bars. Why is it okay for the justice system to charge adolescents as adults? As a nation we can’t logically expect children to be held to the same standards as adults and do so only when criminal courts deem it fit. Charging children as adults for any crime is not only a far cry from being a deterrent but it is also fails to provide justice for all of the individuals involved.

Kenzie Houk had everything going for her. She was twenty-six, engaged to the love of her life, and was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. In the late winter of 2009, her four-year-old daughter waddled in her bedroom, hoping to surprise her mommy with a good morning smile. Instead, she found her mother with a bullet through her head. Eleven-year-old Jordan Brown, the soon-to-be stepson of Kenzie Houk, was arrested and charged with homicide, pulling the trigger before he went to school. There were two counts of homicide, one for Kenzie Houk and the other for her baby. Brown was tried in juvenile court and sentenced to a residential treatment facility until the age of twenty-one. To Kenzie Houk’s family, Brown’s sentence would never live up to that her four-year-old and seven-year old daughters would have to serve. “The day Kenzie was murdered, the whole family was served with a life sentence,” said Debbie Houk, the victim’s mother. “[Her daughters] are serving life right now. They are never going to see their mom” (Chen). Serious juvenile crimes, similar to this, cannot be properly justified in the juvenile justice system. Juveniles should be tried in the adult criminal court system for serious crimes because of the lack of severity in the juvenile court system, increased youth crime and recidivism rates, and the mental maturity of juvenile offenders.

John smith is a 14 year old boy living with an unstable family. His mom deals drugs and his dad is a drug addict. As a result, he lives in a ghetto neighborhood and hung out with bad company. He was convinced to take part in a house robbery. He was the look out like Steve Harmon in the book Monster. When he was on the look out his friend killed two of the people who lived in the house. Therefor John was charged as an adult and convicted to life in jail. His whole life is down the drain. John is 14 and doesn't know what he is getting himself into. He will be abused and raped because he is so young and weak compared to the other cell mates. He is also at the age where he still needs his body to develop but in jail it will not develop right so then he will not be healthy. At the time he did not know what he was getting into so he thought his friend was just going to go in and go out. But that did not happen. I think that kids at Johns age should not be charged as adults because even though John did a crime he was not the one who killed the

The boy who was 10 years old at the time was released from juvenile detention at the age of 12 to a psychiatric facility where he will be monitored until he is mentally stable. Seeing as the boy was 10 year old when the crime was committed the justice system was not able to charge him as an adult and charges were dropped until he reaches the age of 21 or becomes mentally stable. Children who commit crimes from an early age or who start to show violent actions towards other people, should be given psychiatric help. Seeing as the 4th Amendment protects these minors who are in between the ages of 9 and 12, parents and adults need to keep a careful eye on their children's

Juveniles should not be tried as adults because it is proven that children are incapable of making a rational, mature decision on their own. Adolescents have a shorter experience in the world, their brains are still developing, they do not have the same responsibilities or rights as adults and they are easily influenced at this age. Let 's say a child around the age of twelve is playing with two other friends at his house. His mother and father both work constantly so these children are alone. They are snooping around in his dad 's room and find a gun. Not being old enough to understand or realize it 's not a good idea they begin to play with it. One of the children pulls the trigger not considering what could happen. He accidentally shoots on of the other children and he was instantly killed. They decide to call 911 and before they arrive the child that accidentally shot the other tells his friend to tell them that it was his fault because hed get in trouble by his mom. The boy agrees and tells the police it was his fault and he is sent to adult prison for the maximum sentence. Children are both easily influenced and not as intelligent compared to an adult. These children are so immature and underdeveloped they should not and cannot make rational decisions on their own.

Kids should be tried as adults because by the time they’re 12 they know that murder is wrong. A 15-year-old stabbed to death a minimart clerk (Lundstrom). He claimed he was just copying a show he saw on t.v (Lundstrom). This shows that kids know when they did something wrong and they try to blame it on things that don’t really make sense. There was another case involving two 16-year-old girls who killed a 15-year-old girl (Sutton). They

Children as young as 11 are being sent to adult prisons 96% of them live in an abusive home, are being abused or live in a violent neighborhood. These young offenders know right from wrong but they are unable to process the long term effects of their decisions. Most teens live in the now and aren’t thinking of tomorrow or 5 years from now. The people should be helping these kids not locking them up. That child would have to deal with being sexual harassment every day because of his or hers size or age. They shouldn’t spend their whole life getting raped in a prison

Around 41 percent of Americans have been arrested at least once before the age of 23. That’s 9 percent away from being half of the United States. These children that get into trouble may not even realize their consequences for their doings, not realizing how serious things can get. Who are theses kids that make these poor choices? Should the children that commit violent crimes be tried as adults?

The night was calm with a few whistles of wind every now and then. Twelve year old Chris just left his house after finding a gun under the kitchen table. He was walking the streets alone pointing the gun, acting like he was in Call of Duty. Boom! Boom! Man down! Man down! He was having fun pretending. Out of the black mist, a sneaky man came up behind Chris and yelled “What in the hell are you doing!” Chis turned around panicked and accidentally fired the gun, killing the man in one shot. Chris was arrested and charged as an adult with murder. He was sentenced to life-in-prison without parole. His family felt diminished. How could a twelve year old child be left to rot in jail for the rest of his life? Even though he committed a serious crime, he is only a child. Incarcerating children is a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S Constitution, because children in adult jail do not receive proper rehabilitation, food, water, or hygiene.

Treating juveniles like they are adults in any shape or form is completely wrong. Previously I stated that I believed juveniles who commit violent crimes should be tried as adults, but after careful thinking and research, I feel very differently about this matter because they are still children mentally. They do not have the mental capacity to make informed decisions like adults. According to Albow (2014), when we allow our justice system to treat children or adolescence as adults so that we can be more punishing of their acts, we show no commitment to justice. What we show is our own contempt for the truth. Most juveniles between the ages of 14-17 are sometimes incapable of

This is a worldwide problem. The meaning of “kids” is not the same no more. They are not kids who don’t smoke, or drink, or go to R movies without an OK like stated in the article “Kids Are Kids-Until They Commit Crimes” by Marjie Lundstrom that they are. Kids find themselves grown and start to act on as if they are. Lundstrom also writes that “ The nation’s juvenile arrest rate for murder fell 68 percent from 1993 to 1999, hitting its lowest level since 1966, according to the Justice Department.” The percent most likely decrease because juveniles are becoming more smarter. What needs to happen is for parents stop giving them privileges.

Violent crimes, committed by the underage, are being reported by the media now more so than before, here in the United States. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Statistical Briefing Book reports, “In 2015, the population for juveniles in the United States are 73.6 million underage 18 commit crimes.” In many cases, the Juvenile Justice Department handles the consequences of the unlawful doing by enforcing penalties on said juveniles. Juveniles should be disciplined for any violent crime; however, they should not be tried as adults, one reason being that children’s brains are not fully developed. Another reason is they might be in the situation of mental disorders, or experienced types of abuses.

The victim's family, of course, won’t be comfortable around the offender especially if a loved one is hurt. Now, some crimes are truly so inhumane, people would be extremely afraid to know if one of them is with them. I dislike the idea of having those very kids, in the juvenile prisons where they don’t belong. The victim’s family may want them in the adult prison as well and so would others. There is only justification for violent crimes and not that, means what they did is right. While, yes, there are those under the age of eighteen unable to be help. Now, there are even fewer kids who never was ‘broken’ and was always like that. A crime so inhumane and not even a single remorse or regret. No one wants someone like that to be along themselves.

A child has a limited understanding of how the world functions. It is difficult for a child to distinguish right from wrong. Therefore, it would be common sense to try a child, under the age of 18, differently than an adult, with some exceptions being made to frequent offenders and very serious crimes. But that is not the way it is being implemented in the US. There are three ways a youth offender can be transferred from a juvenile court to an adult court in the US. Brink (2004) lists the

Regardless of age, a killer is a killer. A killer can be the daily customer you have at your job or the child you’re babysitting. “The Supreme Court justices would be wise as well as compassionate to strike a balance: Make juvenile offenders responsible for their actions but don't completely rob them of hope. And this should apply not only to the inmates who were 14 at the time of their crimes but to the remaining 2,497 who were 15 to 18 years old,” (Ellison 19). Kids make mistakes all the time, that doesn’t mean we should take their life away from them. With overlooking the listed factors in court when sentencing a juvenile, this will improve the number of children in prisons. Not all of these children partake in the act because of evil, but merely because of