Essay On Why Juveniles Should Be Tried As Adult

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Recommended: Juvenile delinquency and criminal justice system

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.
Mental capacity is defined by Merriam-Webster as “sufficient understanding and memory to comprehend in a general way the situation in which one finds oneself and the nature, purpose, and consequence of any act or transaction into which one proposes to enter” or “the degree of understanding and memory the law requires to uphold the validity of or to charge one with responsibility for a particular act or transaction.” In other words, a person of the adequate mental capacity to be charged and tried as an adult must be fully developed and mature mentally, which, according to latest research, does not occur until around the age of twenty five. Up until this time, the part of the brain associated with making decisions, the prefrontal cortex, is not matured completely. “Even in a precocious era, the most mature 11-year olds a...

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...r the age of eighteen is not considered an adult. It has been proved that a person does not mature mentally until about age twenty one. 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 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.

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