Juvenile Justice System: Juveniles Should Be Treated the Same as an Adult Criminal

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When you think about criminals, you would usually picture adults’, right? Not only can adults be criminals, but many children are criminals as well. In the United States alone, around 1.5 Million children under the age of 18 are arrested annually. Juvenile crimes reached a peak in the year 1996 at around 8,500 arrests for every 100,000 youths ages 10 through 17. Some consequences for these minors are year jail sentences, life sentences, and sometimes even the death penalty, depending on the crime that was committed. The Juvenile Justice System is a system in the Juvenile Courts that try and find an alternative other than adult courts and prisons, such as rehabilitation that aims to change that offender’s life for the better, and prevent reincarceration. Children are being treated no differently than adults when it comes to trial, but the question is should an offender under the age of 18 be treated the same way as an offender that is 18 or above?
There are many reasons against why offenders of a crime that are under eighteen should not be treated the same as an offender of a crime that is 18 or older. One of these reasons being that the brain of a person that is under the age of 18 is not fully developed, compared to an adults brain. Studies show that the brain is not done maturing when you are under 18 and the ages 10-20 are considered a period of change in one’s life, thus ones judgment and reasoning is not fully developed. Studies on the brain have shown that the frontal lobe is the lobe that is responsible for good decision making and impulsive control. It has been proven that the frontal lobe of your brain is not fully developed until the age of 25. This means that, for example, the decision making process of...

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...ive them a positive influence and help change the individual. Studies show that trying children in adult courts increase the rates of re arrest, and likelihood of future crimes being worse. For example, Juveniles in New York that were tried in adult courts were rearrested more often than those in New Jerseys Juvenile courts that originally committed the same exact crime. (Editorial Board, Syacuse.com) Another reason is that placing children in rehabilitation is better financially. Placing a child in rehabilitation is eight times more affordable than the costs of placing them in prison and providing for them. Money that is used to place a child in jail is money that could be used towards rehabilitating the child to help change their lives and prevent future problems. With that, not only is the child receiving help, but this also saves the government money as well.

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