Many believe that it isn’t fair for the teens to be locked up with adults. The U.S. House of Representatives made the Juvenile Justice Act encouraging states to find alternatives to having the teens go through such a process with people much older than themselves (Locked Up…). Holden 6 Ma... ... middle of paper ... ...hey commit certain crimes. The justice systems of America are becoming completely unjust and easy to break through. America is seeing a true problem when it comes to the punishment of certain teens.
Juvenile crime has risen over the past years and has reached a height to where these young adults need help to return to what used to be a good, humble world where crime was a horrible action that no one would dare do. Young people have their whole life ahead of them and need to learn how to adapt themselves to a world where crime does exist but without themselves becoming a part of it. It is unimaginable how these children throw away their lives in a single action taken whether it is destructive to property or to other people. Although juveniles may not understand the severity of their crime, sentencing juveniles to mandatory life in prison is necessary because they have enough common knowledge to differentiate between right and wrong, the “underdeveloped mentality” is not yet proven to be true, and the victim’s family will never have their loved one near anymore; they will always be in pain. All children are raised in homes where they are taught the basic rules of life; the knowledge to differentiate between right and wrong.
In some jurisdictions, a child may have to commit 10 to 15 serious crimes before anything is actually done. Many people believe that the juvenile system is not adequate enough to handle the serious crimes of today’s juveniles, but trying them as minors for their serious crimes isn’t helping to eliminate crime. I refer to the system as “the easy way out.” Many of the offenders get a slap on the wrist and non-judicial sentences. Simply sentencing these juveniles with restitution to the victim, community service, or a forfeiture of their driver’s license isn’t enough. In 1998, The Los Angeles Times states that today more than a half-million people are locked up in this country; that total grows by more than 1,000 inmates each week.
The reason why this rule have been imposed or banned was because many believed that they deserve a second chance. There are many reasons why juveniles commit crimes such as murder. For instance, juveniles do not deserve life sentences because their brain isn 't fully develop yet and lack awareness of their actions. In the article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” by Paul Thompson, he explains the development of the brain and how at some situation the brain it isn 't ready and it can affect the person. This effect in divergent ways; psychologically and emotionally.
There are more poor children then ever and the violence laden media glorifies violent behavior,” reported Thomas Geraghty who has been a juvenile lawyer for many years. “Put such at-risk-children together with the availability of guns, and you have an explanation for the relatively few, but lethal, highly publicized, and tragic acts of young people.” (Geraghty, p.363). Geraghty goes on to suggest that placing children in jail is only placing a band-aid on a larger issue at hand. The bottom line is that the support systems that were once available to children at home no longer exist as prevalent as they once did. Education, community outlets, and alternatives to formal prison are all suggestions for getting our juvenile offenders out of a predestined life of failure.
If morality is to be found, it cannot be located in the physical world. Following moralities discovery, there is no absolute justification that one morality is greater than another. Therefore in applying moral skepticism to Emma’s situation we find that there is a large indifference to the actions. As there is no inherent moral compass the actions Emma commits are neutral. They aren’t done out of spite or pleasure, it is just something that is done.
How would you feel if the police arrested kids all over our country to jail for just crossing the street the wrong way or pushing another kid on the playground? That is what is happening to many underage juvenile all over the United States; they are being sent to adult prisons for crimes that do not deserve such severe punishments. Why they were tried as adults is an enigma and we will explain why this is a terrible injustice. In 1899 children in between the ages of 7-14 were believed they were incapable of committing criminal intent. The court system back then believed that if enough evidence could be gathered to convince a jury, the underage person would be convicted and sent to an adult prison.
Juvenile Criminals Should Not Be Tried as Adults Today?s court system is left with many difficult decisions. One of the most controversial being whether to try juveniles as adults or not. With the number of children in adult prisons and jails rising rapidly, questions are being asked as to why children have been committing such heinous crimes and how will they be stopped. The fact of the matter is that it is not always the children's fault for their poor choices and actions; they are merely a victim of their environment or their parents. Another question asked is how young is too young.
In America, teenagers under the age of 18 cannot drink, vote, or sit on a jury, yet they can be sentenced to death if convicted of a crime. What these children need is rehabilitation, guidance and most importantly given a second change to mend what they did as impulsive children. On the other hand, family victims often call for the death penalty because their sibling/child had no right to die in the hands of a murderer. Since this person took their life, the family should have the right to lawfully take the murder’s life. Life in prison is not always enough for them because they have an opportunity to leave on parole, and the thought of these murderous monsters being released into society again horrifies these families, thus they call for execution.
Mental disability is another big cause of juvenile delinquency. Mentally ill boys or girls can commit any crime without knowing the consequences of it. Statistics show that mental illnesses are one of the biggest reasons behind juvenile delinquency in America and other developed