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Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults?

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“The Justice Department estimates that about 10 percent of all homicides are committed

by juveniles under the age of 18. Nearly every year, the FBI arrests more than 33,000 young

adults under the age of 18 for offenses,” states Huma Khan in the article “Juvenile Justice: Too

Young for Life in Prison?”This leaves us the question: Should juveniles be tried as adults?

Juveniles should not be tried as adults because kids are not adults.

“Like many states, California allows youth offenders as young as 14 to be transferred

from the juvenile system to adult courts. From there, most of the teenagers who are tried as

adults and sentenced to life in adult institutions are placed in Level 4 maximum-security prisons

that are extremely violent,” according to “Prison Is Too Violent for Young Offenders” by Gary

Scott. Maximum-security prisons are prisons where all prisoners have individual cells. The

prisoners are restrained to staying in their cell for 23 hours most of the time. This sounds

ridiculous for juveniles especially if they are under the age of 14. Scott adds that:

This happens even though courts have said that juveniles are different from adults

and in some situations must be treated differently. For example, in 2005, the Supreme

Court banned the death penalty for juvenile offenders because “people under 18 are immature,

irresponsible, susceptible to peer-pressure and often capable of change.” However, the justices

have not yet applied this same logic when considering the sentencing and housing of juveniles in

the adult system.

If juveniles are “immature, irresponsible, susceptible to peer-pressure and often capable of

change,” then why wouldn’t this logic be regarded for the juveniles who face pr...

... middle of paper ...

...uveniles as Adults." The Christian

Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Mar. 2011. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.

www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Editorial-Board-Blog/2011/0316/More-states-correct-the-mistake- of-trying-juveniles-as-adults>. Scott, Gary. “Prison Is Too for Youth Offenders.” NYTimes, June 5, 2012.Web. 29 Mar.2014.

< http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/06/05/when-to-punish-a-young-offender-and- when-to-rehabilitate/prison-is-too-violent-for-young-offenders>. Schwartz, Robert. "Kids Should Never Be Tried as Adults." CNN. Cable News Network, 18 Feb. 2010.

Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .

Wilde, Jessica. "Juvenile Criminals Must Be Tried as Adults." The Rebel Yell. 5 Mar. 2009. Web. 29 Mar.

2014. .
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