Throughout and for many years there has been a lot of controversy on how to trial someone who has committed a crime under the age of 18. A lie will be a lie even if it 's serious or innocent and that 's why just like a crime will always be a crime, no matter what the situation is. The age of a person who has committed murder shouldn 't be an issue or a complication. Many advocate that the juvenile is just a child, but despised that I believe that is no justification or defense for anyone who does a crime. America and the nation need to apprehend that juveniles that are being conducted to life in prison is not just for one small incident or crime, but for several severe crimes according to Jennifer Jenkins, Juvenile Justice Information …show more content…
On the contrary Jenkins argues that if that was the case, then teens would kill at roughly the same rates all around the world. On my behalf I concur with Jenkins because everyone is responsible for their own actions and behavior. Consciousness, is what awares our minds whether we decide if we want to do something or not and what is right and wrong. If brain underdevelopment is supposedly one of the reasons, then why aren 't my siblings and I kill people like the other juveniles who are. Professor Stephen Morse reasons that “the actual science does not in any way negate criminal culpability”. We cannot incriminate science or anything because every individual will be different in many aspects because every kid matures and grows at different ages and stages. For example, from my own experiences I have seen a twelve year old child be more mature and formal than a thirty year old adult. In some cases, some children mature when they go through puberty, others till later or maybe even at a very young age.. The “underdevelopment brain” argument should not be an issue to interfere with why a juvenile should not be trial to life in prison. Although a teenager will suggest and demand that their emotions ran high, which was why they killed somebody and their …show more content…
Isolation may help a juvenile come into conclusion about why they are justified to being in prison. From personal experience I have observed how someone that I know has been conducted to jail for a short period of time they automatically regret their actions and decisions. A real life story about a juvenile’s isolation made him recognized the crime he committed is Greg Ousley. Scott Anderson, author of the New York Times article “Greg Ousley Is Sorry for Killing His Parents. Is that Enough?”declares that Greg feels guilty after being in jail for so many years and many revelations have been exposed to him. Even though a murder might have finally rehabilitated, our systems should still protect our state and community by keeping them behind bars because you never know when another episode or attack can be
Many people say that the systems first priority should be to protect the public from the juvenile criminals that are a danger to others. Once the juveniles enter the system there is however, arguments on what should be done with them. Especially for those deemed too dangerous to be released back to their parents. Some want them locked away for as long as possible without rehabilitation, thinking that it will halt their criminal actions. One way to do this they argue would be to send them into an adult court. This has been a large way to reform the juvenile system, by lowering the age limits. I believe in certain cases this is the best method for unforgiving juveniles convicted of murder, as in the case of Ronald Duncan, who got away with a much lesser sentence due to his age. However another juvenile, Geri Vance, was old enough to be sent into the adult court, which caused him t...
Being charged with adult sentences is a very harsh punishment considering their age. Andrew Medina was fifteen when he got sentenced to life without parole because of a murder that he possibly did not commit. Officers also alleged that he was part of a gang and sent him to spend the rest of his life in a very strict prison. Trevor Jones also got sentenced to life without parole at the age of seventeen because of reckless manslaughter. Even though it was an accident, the victim’s death occurred while Trevor intended armed robbery and was accused of felony murder and will spend the rest of his life in prison. Jacob Ind was sentenced to life without parole. At the age of fifteen, he killed his mother and stepfather in order to put an end to the all kinds of abuse they were putting him through. The jury did not recognize the fact that it was primarily self-defense and accused him of first degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence. These are the cases of only three kids who got life without parole but there are so many more. These kids miss out on so many things in life because they will spend most of it locked in a cell. One accident or mistake can ruin their lives forever. That is why I think juveniles should be tried in juvenile
For example, a 12 year old kid, Lionel Tate, beat and killed a 6 year old girl to death because he was imitating professional wrestlers he saw on TV. Life in prison without parole or even going to an adult prison is extreme for a 12 year old. Many kids who make it out of the adult system end up worse than when they went in because they come out as hardened criminals. In another case, Nathaniel Brazill, who shot and killed his teacher at the age of 13. The crime was heinous, but the issue with convicting teenagers as adults is that during the teenage years, gray matter in the brain which supports all our thinking and emotions is purged at a rate of 1 to 2 percent a year. This occurs in the frontal lobe of our brain, which controls impulses, risk-taking, and self-control. Teenagers brains work differently and are not yet fully functioning compared to adult brains, evidence enough juveniles should not be tried as adults. However many prosecutors and the families of victims claim that teenagers know it is wrong to kill and the courts need to crack down on these cases in order to send a message to teenegaers across the US to not commit murder, or they could face life without parole. That may be true however, giving kids the message that they are not curable or worthy of a second chance sends out the wrong message and makes other countries in the world look down on the US. Also, they claim that many teenagers commit “thrill kills”, and nothing is wrong with them mentally. They also state that if brain development was the reason, that kids should kill at the same rate as adults. Their main argument is that the murders leave families in ruins and forever scar them when they lose a loved one. Once again many of these arguments are true, but kids are less mature and more vulnerable to peer pressure because their characters are still forming. Children
If children are too young to vote, drink alcohol, drive, and go watch rated R movies, why should they be tried as adults? It has always been an issue if whether an adolescent, under the age of eighteen, convicted of violent crimes should be tried as an adult or not. There are children as young as eleven years old that are being sent to adult prisons (Krikorian 2003). In such cases the jury does not take into consideration the fact that they are too young to stand trial, their brains are not fully developed, and that they are capable of rehabilitating.
Age is a factor in why Juveniles should not be sentenced to life in prison. As Paul Thompson states in his article Startling Finds on Teenage Brains from the Sacramento Bee, published on May 25, 2001 “ ...These frontal lobes,which inhibit our violent passions, rash action and regulate our emotions are vastly immature throughout the teenage years.” he also says that “The loss[of brain tissue] was like a wildfire, and you see it in every teenager.”. This loss of brain tissue plays a role in the erratic behavior of teens, they cannot properly assess their emotions and thoughts. During this period of brain tissue loss teens are unpredictable, adults do not know what their teen’s next move will be, teens themselves do not even know what their next move will be. As we grow our brains develop, therefore teen brains are not fully developed, so they cannot be held to the same standards as adults.
The Criminal Justice System’s main goal is to “deliver justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty and helping them to stop offending, while protecting the innocent” (Garside). Juveniles who murder, steal, etc. are guilty. It does not matter their age because they have
Sentencing juveniles to capital punishment is unethical and cruel. It is too severe for juveniles without the full reasoning ability and limited brain development to be sentence to the death penalty. Horn (2009) writes, “Youths lack the sense of responsibility that society requires of adults. Their personalities are not yet fixed… Young people have to little experience to fully grasp the consequences of their actions.” (Horn, 2009). This shows that juveniles do not have the experience that adults have to be like adults. Also, Stevenson (2014) writes, “Contemporary neurological, psychological…evidence has established that children are impaired by immature judgement, an underdeveloped capacity for self-regulation and responsibility, vulnerability to negative influences and outside pressures, and a lack of control over their own impulses and their environment.” (Stevenson, 2014, pg. 267-268). Stevenson (2014) is basically saying that children are not matured as adults and the court needs to look at these facts before giving such punishments. Not only that, Stevenson (2014) says, “Young adolescents lack life experience and background knowledge to inform their choices; they struggle to generate options and to imagine consequences; and, perhaps for good reason, they lack the necessary self-confidence to make reasoned judgements and stick by them” (Stevenson, 2014, pg. 268-269). Children should be
Juveniles are more than just kids. They are capable of doing anything an adult is capable of doing. One has probably heard the saying, “If you want to be treated like an adult, then act like an adult.” If they’re going to do crimes that “only” adults are capable of doing, then they should treated like an adult and be tried and sentenced like one. Imagine being close to a murder victim, wouldn’t you want them to feel hell? “How would you feel if you never got to see your child alive again while their killer served only a short sentence before being released from jail?” (hchs1259). This quote hits hard. One can only imagine being in the position of a parent whose child was murdered.
In the article On Punishment and Teen Killers by Jenkins, sadly brings to our attention that kids are sometimes responsible for unimaginable crimes, in 1990 in a suburban Chicago neighborhood a teenager murdered a women, her husband, and her unborn child, as she begged for the life of her unborn child he shot her and later reported to a close friend that it was a “thrill kill”, that he just simply wanted to see what it felt like to shoot someone. A major recent issue being debated is whether or not we have the right to sentence Juveniles who commit heinous crimes to life in adult penitentiaries without parole. I strongly believe and agree with the law that states adolescents who commit these heinous crimes should be tried as adults and sentenced as adults, however I don’t believe they should be sentenced to life without parole. I chose this position because I believe that these young adults in no way should be excused for their actions and need to face the severe consequences of their actions. Although on the other hand I believe change is possible and that prison could be rehabilitating and that parole should be offered.
There is much controversy over whether or not minors should be tried and convicted as adults; most often with cases involving murder.
In juvenile court, the judge must decide if the teen gets tried as an adult or minor. If the juvenile gets sent to a juvenile detention center for murder they will live their lives there until they are twenty one, but if tried as an adult they will serve so many years in prison. There is a grey area of law for certain teens that commit serious crimes. In this case of the grey law, each state gets to decide upon the particular state how they person is tried. For most cases pertaining to the juvenile courts are case by case bases. 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…).
Should juveniles be trial as an adult after committing a heinous crime and sentenced to life? As a teenager, this question if far complicated to answer due that I am a teenager yet in my opinion, I believe that the juvenile should not be sentenced to life. I believe that there 's other way to punish them for their crimes. The last execution was in 2006 in California. On June 2012, the supreme court of justice ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life in prison. On July 2014, in California the death penalty was removed. The 8th amendment banned the use of cruel or punishments. 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.
When juvenile are being sentenced life in prison for committing murder has always been an issue in many court cases. Some believe that they don 't deserve a second chance and that they should be sentenced life in prison but others do believe in second chances. There are many reasons to why juveniles should be given a second chance in life when they commit a crime such as murder. For example, the brain of these juveniles is not fully developed, the environment can influence them to do such crimes and there 's still ways for them to change and turn their life around.
Juveniles should be treated as adults and be given a life sentencing because of the lack of equality that should be given to every person worldwide regardless of their ethnicity and age. When committing such a crime, juveniles should be sentenced to the same punishment as an adult and if a life sentence is given to a specific adult it should be given to the juvenile as well. It would be entirely unfair to have an extraordinary child or teen to be set free for the murderous cause he has done to a person that also an adult would commit.
In today’s generation there are many children and teens that commit crimes to satisfy their self being. Every day we see in the news about the reasons why children or teens commit crimes like murder or homicide. Sentencing juveniles to life in prison is not a right response to prevent homicide and serious murder, because their brains are not fully develop and the bad environment they live in. Teenagers or children need to be remain unformed of preventing crimes in today’s society. With this said, juvenile’s mental brains, backgrounds and growth are the reasons why they are not proficient to maintain themselves in a prison cell.