Should kids who commit adult crimes go to jail?

Should kids who commit adult crimes go to jail?

Imagine a younger sibling or a younger cousin of yours, curious and happy, not having a care in the world. They have not yet seen the dangers of the world. Now, picture this in your head, picture there usually happy faces are now covered with fear and a sad face. Once they were free but now they are wearing shackles around their arms and their legs, shackles to big for them, shackles meant for someone older. Shackles not meant for them. Imagine if the last time you saw your younger sibling/cousin you saw them, you see them getting escorted into a big metal cage and you watch as the door slams right in their little faces. It would be awful seeing that. Kids under the age of 16 should not go to jail, even if they do commit the heinous of crimes, because they are children.

Adolescents are old enough to understand the difference between right and wrong, but they are too young to make the right choices yet. As Laurence Steinberg, Professor at Temple University, says “The teenage brain is like a car with a good accelerator but has a weak brake.” Studies have shown that based on adolescent’s brain development, adolescents are more likely to act on impulse, misread social cues and emotions, and/or engage in risky behavior. Adolescents are less likely to think before they act, or pause to consider the potential consequences of their actions. These brain differences don’t mean that young people can’t make good decisions or tell the difference between right and wrong. It also doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions. It just means that adolescents are not able to make wise decisions.

Another reason why kids shouldn’t go to jail is that it is wrong to hold kids to adult standards. Children are not permitted to the same rights as an adult because of their inability to make wise decisions.Scientists have identified a “specific region of the brain called the amygdala which is responsible for instinctual reactions including fear and aggressive behavior.” This region develops early. However, the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls reasoning and helps us think before we act, develops later. For adolescents, this region of the brain is not fully grown yet.With time, this part of the brain is still changing and maturing well into a good adulthood, and with that, good decisions. So why should children be held to adult standards when they don’t have the same rights as them. For an example we don’t say, “This is a very important election so let’s let the kids vote”, right, so why should people say, “This case is different and this kid deserves to be treated as an adult and locked away in prison”. It doesn’t make sense.

Lastly, children who commit crimes, even the ones who commit the most unforgivable of crimes, can be rehabilitated and become responsible adults.

Children should not go to jail because at the time, you were too busy doing this and probably not thinking about your actions as you did. You just knew that you needed to have/do this, you weren’t thinking of other people. It’s after you got caught and were punished for it, that you reflect on your actions. You were punished for it, but you weren’t locked away for it. When it came the time again for that decision, you had learned better than that. But you didn’t even have to be locked away for that did you, You learned from your mistakes. We all make mistakes. Children who commit serious crimes still have the ability to change their lives for the better. It is now up to up to the adults to help them, and lead them out on the path of life This is why children under 16 should not go to jail.

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I think that, if for instance a 15 year old killed another 15 year old, then they should serve the time. If you understand the difference between right and wrong, and you blatantly went against it, then they should be tried as an adult. If adults have to go to jail for killing or committing violent crimes, then they should too, after all, they are going to grow up to be an adult. Unless the teen has a mental disability and they don't understand that what they did was wrong.

They need to understand that you can't get away with everything, but this all still goes back to the parents. If the parents of today actually start being parents and stop letting TVs and video games etc. raise their kids, then we wouldn't have all this to begin with. Parents, the Bible says "train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn away from them." If parents neglect to raise their kids properly then how do they expect them to act in the future?

When a child kills, does he instantly become an adult? Or does he maintain some trappings of childhood, despite the gravity of his actions?

These are the questions plaguing the American legal system today, as the violent acts of juvenile offenders continue to make headlines.

Wednesday, 14-year-old Nathaniel Brazill was found guilty of second-degree murder for killing his English teacher last year. The charge usually carries a prison term of up to 30 years, but Brazille's defense team is hopeful the sentencing judge will be more lenient in this case. They have a powerful ally: Jeb Bush. "There is a different standard for children," the governor said after Brazill was sentenced. "There should be some sensitivity that a 14-year-old is not a little adult."

In March, another Florida jury sentenced14-year-old Lionel Tate, who killed a younger girl while practicing wrestling moves on her, to life in prison without parole. The concurrent Brazill and Tate trials served to heighten the public misconception that juvenile violent crime is on the rise; in fact, recent figures show a precipitous drop over the last five years.

Are we seeing a drop because children are thinking more carefully about their crimes, knowing they could receive adult sentences? All but five states allow children of any age charged with murder to be tried as adults. The death penalty generally isn't an option — at least not for defendants under the age of 16; The U. S. Supreme Court has ruled capital punishment unconstitutional for anyone who hasn't celebrated their 16th birthday. Some states, however, will consider 16- and 17-year-olds for the death penalty.

Or are there other factors? Defense attorneys might offer a different argument: Since the bulk of the drop-off in juvenile crime predates most states' embrace of harsher penalties for young offenders, it is disingenuous to assume any connection between the two.

The fundamental question is, are children capable of understanding the consequences of their actions? Maybe not; recent studies suggest that the brain's prefrontal lobe, which some scientists speculate plays a crucial role in inhibiting inappropriate behavior, may not reach full development until age 20.

It's unlikely that America's thirst for vengeance will be sated by scientific theory. We are, as a nation, very much in favor of treating child criminals as adults — a recent ABC news poll showed 55 percent of us believe the crime, not the perpetrator's age, should be the determining factor in sentencing.

Below, a few of the arguments posited by both sides of the juvenile crime debate. At the end, there is an email address; we invite you to send us your comments. Let us know what you think.

Should the U.S. justice system treat juvenile violent offenders as adults?

YES

The end result of a heinous crime remains the same, no matter who commits it. Our justice system depends upon holding perpetrators responsible for their actions.

Harsh sentencing acts as a deterrent to kids who are considering committing crimes. Trying children as adults has coincided with lower rates of juvenile crimes. Light sentences don't teach kids the lesson they need to learn: If you commit a terrible crime, you will spend a considerable part of your life in jail.

Kids today are more sophisticated at a younger age; they understand the implications of violence and how to use violent weapons. It is absurd to argue that a modern child, who sees the effect of violence around him in the news every day, doesn't understand what killing really is. The fact that child killers know how to load and shoot a gun is an indicator that they understand exactly what they're doing.

NO

The juvenile prison system can help kids turn their lives around; rehabilitation gives kids a second chance. Successful rehabilitation, many argue, is better for society in the long run than releasing someone who's spent their entire young adult life in general prison population. A young person released from juvenile prison is far less likely to commit a crime than someone coming out of an adult facility.

Children don't have the intellectual or moral capacity to understand the consequences of their actions; similarly, they lack the same capacity to be trial defendants.

Children shouldn't be able to get deadly weapons in the first place. Adults who provide kids with guns used in violent crimes should be held at least as accountable as the kids themselves.

It's remarkably easy to find a seasoned defense lawyer who believes the current system is too vulnerable to racism: Statistically, black juvenile offenders are far more likely to be transferred to adult courts (and serve adult time) than their white peers who've committed comparable crimes.

Murderers, rapists, and other criminals are being released from jail everyday after serving only very short and lenient sentences. Who are these criminals and what makes them so special? The criminals are juveniles who commit adult crimes. They are being tried every day in juvenile courts, they are receiving shortened sentences, and they are being released and given new identities to continue to live their lives in peaceful and happy bliss, all while their victims and their families are left to suffer forever. Because the courts and juvenile rights advocates believe that second chances should be given to youths who commit crimes, criminals are walking the streets, living as our neighbors, and in many instances committing additional crimes.

When it comes to trying teens in court as adults. Some say stop trying them as adults and try them as juveniles, others say they must be tried as adults when they commit adult crimes. I believe that teens should be held accountable for their actions and tried as adults. If I knew somebody who hurt or killed someone I loved, I would want him or her to experience the worst possible punishment for his or her actions. Some people say that children learn bad behavior from their parents, things like murder, rap or drug abuse; but I believe that children should learn from their parent’s mistakes. I agree with Jessica Wilde when she say’s “Morals are inherent from birth”(Wilde1). To me this is saying that kids, and even adults, should know the difference between right and wrong. Finally, put yourself in the mother’s position, if your son or daughter just died, how would you want their killer to be punished? How would you feel if you never got to see your child alive again while their killer served only a short sentence before being released from jail?

Now then, some people believe that we should stop putting teens in adult prison; they believe we should be lenient with them and give them easier sentences. These people argue that children are capable of learning from their mistakes and because they are children, they can be rehabilitated. Others say that teens are too young to understand the consequences of there actions, or that they don’t know their limitations with drugs or alcohol. I believe this is a ridiculous argument because teens shouldn’t be drinking or doing drugs in the first place. There are some people, like Hendricks, in his article “Stop Trying 13-Year-olds in Court as Adults”, who believe “They’re abused and come out more dangerous and damaged then when they went in”(Hendricks 2). This is a good argument; however, can’t we say the same thing for adults? Why should juveniles be treated any different than adults when the crimes they are committing are every bit as heinous as adult crimes?

Youths who commit crimes are criminals; they are walking our streets, living as our neighbors, and in many instances committing additional crimes. I strongly agree with Jessica Wilde when she says, “All crimes committed by juveniles should and must be treated in the same regard, it not to punish heinous acts, then to provide justice to the families of victims (Wilde 2). As a child myself, I was raised in a family who believes in punishments, spankings, and repercussions for the actions of the children. Some say morals are learned, others say we inherit morals at birth, either way, a criminal is a criminal and must be punished as such. Should we punish all juveniles as adults? Probably not with lesser crimes, but some crimes are certainly more heinous than others, and those crimes like murder and rape are adult crimes. It really doesn’t matter the age of the criminal, it they are committing crimes that are inherently adult in nature, then yes, these criminals absolutely should be punished as an adult regardless of their age. Our courts, our schools, nor our societies, should ever allow anyone, child or adult, get away with murder.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04