Adult Crimes Deserve Adult Punishment
Thursday, May 21, 1998. In Springfield, Oregon, 15-year old Kip Kinkel opened fire in the cafeteria
of Thurston High School. Two were killed and 25 others were wounded. Tuesday, March 24, 1998. In
Jonesboro, Arkansas, 11-year old Andrew Golden and 13-year old Mitchell Johnson pulled the fire
alarm and shot at the students filing out of the school. Five were killed and ten were wounded.
Monday, Dec. 1, 1997. In Paducah, Kentucky, 14-year old Michael Carneal pulled out a pistol and
began firing on a student prayer group. Three were killed and five others were wounded.
These incidents are only a tiny sample of the school shootings that have been committed by juvniles
in the United States. More shootings have happenned in Onalaska, Washington; Johnston, Rhode
Island; Endinboro, Pennsylvania; St. Charles, Missouri ... the list continues on and on, not to mention
Columbine!
Lynbrook junior Stephanie Tsai disagrees with this saying, "At the age of 18, teens are allowed to
vote because people believe that by that age they can think rationally and sensibally. Until kids are
18, they cannot be held responsible for their actions." Let's examine this age 18 issue more closely ...
Granted, our or society does give juvniles the right to vote at age 18. However, many states give them
the right to drive at age 16 and the right to drink at age 21. The fact is that declaring an 18 year-old an
adult is an arbitrary standard to determine maturity as far as prosecuting crime goes.
The juvenile court system was orginially implemented to protect juveniles from the "harsh" adult
court, for juvenile criminals were thought to be more mentally "immature" than adults. This may very
well be if we were speaking of a 6 year-old. However, 17 year-olds classify as juveniles as well. Are
we to say that 17 year-olds are significantly more "immature" and should "not be held rsponsible for
their actions" than that of an adult 18-year old? I wonder........
Furthermore, if our justice system uses mental incompetency as the reason juveniles have their own
separate and more lenient court, why aren't 40 year-olds with the mind of a 10 year-old prosecuted in
the juvenile justice system? Are they not mentally "immature" as well?
An incorrect assumption about this controversial matter is if the juvenile were to be prosecuted in the
adult court, he would be condemned with an adult sentence.
The Guard, for reasons unknown, had to turn back and open fire at a crowd of students. Within thirteen seconds, four students were killed and nine wounded. One student who was killed was Allison Krause, who was the only one of the four killed that was actually involved in the demonstrations.
The shootings that occurred at Kent State University, Ohio, on May 4, 1970 have been a dark spot in American history for almost 36 years. It is a day remembered by many names, THE KENT STATE SHOOTINGS, MAY 4 or the KENT STATE MASSACRE. Four students were killed and nine were wounded, all of America suffered.
"In October 1997, a 16-year old in Pearl, Mississippi, first killed his mother and then went to school and shot nine students, two fatally; in December 1997 a 14-year old went to his school in West Paducah, Kentucky, killed three students and wounded five others; in March last year, two boys, aged eleven and thirteen, killed four girls and a teacher outside their school in Jonesboro, Arkansas; the next month a science teacher was shot dead, allegedly by a 14-year old, at a school dance in Edinsboro, Pennsylvania; last May in Fayetteville, Tennessee, an 18-year old student allegedly shot dead a classmate in the school car park; two days later, in Springfield, Oregon, a 15-year old opened fire at his high school, killing two teenagers and wounding more than twenty (police later found that his parents had been killed at home) ("Lesson"). On April 20th of this year, two teenagers enter their school and open fire, killing 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.
1999) stated that 25 people were killed at the High School by two heavily armed
According to criminal.findlaw.com the definition of the juvenile justice system is the area of criminal law applicable to people not old enough to be held responsible for criminal acts. Juveniles are people 17 and under. Juveniles should be convicted as adults for violent crimes like assault or murder etcetera because if they can commit an adult crime they should get an adult punishment. Also if juveniles don’t get punished for their crimes then they’ll keep doing it because they got off unpunished the first time.
According to most legislation, a person under the age of eighteen is not considered an adult. It has been proved that a person does not mature mentally until about age twenty five. Many basic adult rights are not granted to juveniles because they are not responsible enough to assume the role of an adult. It goes without saying that the law regards those under the age of eighteen as minors, and so these minors shall not ever be treated as an adult in a court of law. Three basic reasons that minors should not be tried as adults are the decreased mental capacity of juveniles, the basic adult rights that are not granted to juveniles, and the fact that prison is an unsuitable environment for minors. Juveniles and adult do not have a parallel mental capacity; therefore, a juvenile should not be tried as an adult in a court of law, and should instead be subject to separate age-specific judicial procedures and legislation.
1966, Charles Joseph Whitman climbed to the top of the iconic clock tower in the center of Texas University in Austin and killed sixteen and seriously injured thirty of his fellow Texas Longhorns. 1991, George Hennard, thirty-five, opened fire on forty innocent patrons at a Luby’s in Killeen, Texas, killing twenty-three of his intended targets. 1999, citizens in a small Colorado County of Douglas were distraught when the infamous Columbine High School massacre rocked their town. More recently, campuses like Virginia Tech, Purdue, and even an elementary school in Connecticut have had students and teachers brutally murdered at the hands of young adults (CNN).
18 and under increases more and more as the years go by. People are assuming that the
Today in America, less than half of young voters between the ages of 18 and 24 vote (TheBestColleges.org). What most of these new adults fail to realize, is that their government depends on them to vote and elect new leaders to represent their country. Many of them make excuses to avoid voting, when really, they benefit most from voting.
Eric Harris, the first of the two shooters, was born on April 9, 1981. He was born in Wichita,
...oving lawmakers to rethink policies that treat them like adults” by Sarah Alice Brown . “Between 1994 and 2010, violent crime arrest rates decreased for all age groups, but more for juveniles than for adults”, were Sarah Alice words. In addition she said; more specifically, the rates dropped an average of 54 percent for teenagers 15 to 17, compared to 38 percent for those between 18 and 39. And while arrest rates for violent crimes were higher in 2010 than in 1980 for all ages over 24, the rates for juveniles ages 15 to 17 were down from 1980.
Unbelievably, the United States citizens trust their sixteen-year-old children to drive three thousand pound vehicles. We require our working young to pay taxes. We trust the decision-making abilities of eighteen year olds in public elections, with the right to smoke, and with the choice of marriage without parental consent. Our young adults are encouraged to join the army and fight for their country. We however believe that until the age of twenty-one our young adults can not handle alcohol.
“Many people in the world believe juveniles are mentally conscious of their actions’’. Possibly knowing right from wrong; they should be punished as an adult. Often times crimes they commit affects and hurt the families of their victims. I strongly believe juvenile offenders should be charged as an adult despite their age.
Juveniles deserve to be tried the same as adults when they commit certain crimes. The justice systems of America are becoming completely unjust and easy to break through. Juvenile courts haven’t always been known to the everyday person.
...d States, juveniles charged with violent felonies ought to be treated as adults in the criminal justice system” (Maxwell). In the criminal justice system everyone has the right to be treated equally regardless the age they have. This society that were living in believes many juveniles offender are being treated differently regard to what age are the juveniles and there brain is not fully developed is injustice the court of law has the right to treat the juveniles the same way as a adult. There should be a reaction or action against the juvenile that commit certain types of crimes they should further receive their punishment for what they done and tried as adults. In the United States many people believe that juveniles should be tried as a adult, with the evidence and the facts they have come to a point that they should be treated the same no matter the age they are.