Juveniles should face life in prison when determined by the judge that the crime they committed was intentional and their mental state is equal to that of other juveniles their age. In order to determine a juvenile’s mental state, the juvenile justice system can come up with a set of questions. Juveniles around the same age could be asked to answer the questions and based on their responses, the justice system members will be able to determine whether or not the juvenile offender has the mentality of someone their age. Cases like, “The Girls Who Tried to Kill for Slender Man; It 's extremely rare for young girls to attempt murder. These two 12-year-olds did so to prove their allegiance to Slender Man” by Abigail Jones, support my claim that If parents fail at guiding their children in the right path and making them good citizens of society then they should be responsible for it. The article, “Juvenile offenders: should they be tried in adult courts?” by Michael Brown Brown states that citizens believe that juveniles, “represent violence, a segment of society lacking in self-control and devoid of ethics and morals, and the failure of the family to install traditional values chief among them being the value of human life and respect for others.” Morals and respect are learned from parents. From a young age, human beings are taught right from wrong and should learn that every action comes with a consequence, good or bad. At times, the place they come from forces them to choose the wrong path. For example, if a juvenile comes from a low-income family that lives in a neighborhood where gangs are portrayed as something “normal,” there is a high chance for that juvenile to become a criminal. However, some juvenile offenders come from families that are wealthy and live in a decent neighborhood. Why is it that the juvenile who comes from a decent family turned into a criminal? It all relates back to the juvenile’s parents. The article, “The sins of the sons” published in The Economist, offers a method which is meant to encourage parents to be more attentive and caring with their children. The solution to juveniles being criminals is to make parents of the offenders pay for the time their children spend in jail. It is stated in the article that, “Two black state senators have introduced legislation to codify the policy statewide, with several important amendments: a judge would be required to consider the parent 's supervision and care of the child before deciding whether to order child support; the
The adult system’s shifts leaked into the juvenile system, causing an increase in incarcerations even when delinquency rates were declining at the time. Juvenile reform legislations prompted more compulsory sentencing and more determinate sentences for juveniles, lowering of the upper age of juvenile jurisdiction, considerable ease in obtaining waivers to adult court for juvenile prosecution, and made it easier to gain access to juvenile records as well. Furthermore, it led to greater preoccupation with chronic, violent offenders, which in turn led to a redirection of resources for their confinement. Thereby, the absence of reliable criteria for identifying such offenders tends to stereotype all delinquents and is more likely to raise the level of precautionary confinements. These three major shifts in juvenile justice policy demonstrate the power and depth of traditional beliefs about the causes and cures of crimes in U.S. society. It also shows how the system can bend for a time in the direction of new approaches to prevention and control. Today, we are presently in a time of conservative responses where the prevailing views about crime express beliefs about prevention, retribution, and incapacitation that are profoundly rooted in our
The reason why I think that juvenile justice are beneficial for trouble is because people learn there mistakes that they did from the past and now and sometimes when people are in there the people who are not in there are probably at work or they are out partying and having fun and like they say its easy to get in and hard to get out so ill advise people to do the right thing that are right for they kids and don't be a fool in get in trouble then there kids probably wont look up to them they will just wanna listen to other people then they parents and some people don't get to have a dad some of there dad probably ran far away from them or went to jail probably died and I would not wanna be like them I wanna be better then
Ricky Franklin Smith was convicted for the breaking and entering that he plead guilty for. At the time of sentencing, the presentence investigation report contained his juvenile criminal record which was supposed to be automatically expunged. Smith appealed that he should be resentenced due to the presentence investigation report. The argument was to whether or not grant Smith the resentencing. In two previous cases, both arguments were made. In People v. Price ruled that the juvenile record that is automatically expunged, could not be considered at the time of sentencing or used in the presentence investigation report. On the other hand, in People v. Jones, the court ruled that it could be considered at the time of sentencing and used in the presentence investigation report. “The majority concluded that Price presented the better-reasoned approach. They added that the automatic expungement of juvenile convictions "is delusive and purposeless if law enforcement agencies may continue to use supposedly expunged records against a defendant to his prejudice. Following the Jones approach effectively subverts MCR 5.913."[7] The dissenting judge said that he believed that Jones represented "the better-reasoned analysis."[8]” (Justia.Law, 2015).
One in three teen delinquents are sexually assaulted by staff members during their time in juvie. Even in the place that is supposed to oppose crime takes part in it. Juvenile Detention Centers are supposed to help minors get on the right track for the rest of their life ahead of them. In 2003 The Prison Rape Elimination Act [PREA] was passed to help prevent and protect against prison rape. Though that was passed it still goes on and the superiors of the inmates are still getting away with it.
This isn’t always true, there some horrible consequences because of it like suicide. “Juvenile jails are a less punishable place than adult prisons and are more forgiving” (Bechtold). When you start to treat a kid like how you treat an adult, when they come out they 're not normal because how people have treated them throughout most of their lives. research has shown that “kids develop better criminal skills when they 're incarcerated in adult facilities”(Bechtold). This is a big negative effect because this is why the US department of corrections say “in prison the reconviction of kids is from 14-17 years is 82.1 percent”(Bechtold). This shocked me because this age group is the highest reconviction rate among all age groups. They think they’re not going to get caught
Although, the juvenile justice system is nothing new to us there have been many changes to it as the years have gone by as well as the way juvenile have started to commit crimes. Just like adult’s juvenile have to answer for the crimes they commit but there are some crimes a juvenile can commit that is not considered an adult crime but is called a juvenile status. With the way new laws are being created daily in order to try and get a close grip on how juvenile is committing more serious crimes today such as sexual assault, armed robbery, assault with the intent to kill and even murder. The juvenile justice system needs ways to deal with these super predators as well as the ones who are committing noncriminal acts but are
In order to ensure that delinquent juveniles, eighth amendment is not violated the Supreme Court has ruled not sentencing juveniles to life sentences in prison on June 25,2012. However,many American citizens believe that the indicated heinous crimes perpetrated by juveniles should indeed face life in prison? Despite the acclaim of juveniles being too young and inexperience to be transferred from an adult facility to an adult prison, for committing murder.
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 (Khan). This clearly shows Juvenile offenders are not taking the justice system seriously. The justice system was created to provide individualized rehabilitation to young offenders that have committed minor crimes. However, juveniles are committing violent crimes because they believe their age will get them off easy. “In order to provide justice to victims and their families and to prevent more and more juveniles from committing violent crimes, the United states must hold criminals accountable; regardless of their age, and impose a tough punishment system. To that end, juveniles should sometimes be tried as an adult.”(Mary). This shows juveniles are manipulating the justice system, and in fact old enough to take responsibility for the crimes they commit. In today society. They are being tried every day in juvenile courts, they are receiving shortened sentences, and they are being released and given a clean slate and the opportunity to continue living their lives in peaceful and happy bliss, all while their victims and their families are left to suffer forever. Because the courts and juvenile rights advocates believe that second chances shou...
...rents to be involved in their children’s lives the cycle of crime will be less likely to start over again. America as a nation needs to push for parental responsibility laws to be enforced on a regular basis because they create a better society.
When our thoughts turn to the criminal justice system it is only a natural instinct to assume everyone associated with policing, courts, and corrections will have to deal with juveniles sometime in their career. Young people in today’s society can be so easily influenced by social situations, peer pressure, and family members. The courts in the United States are faced with difficult decisions on a daily basis. Sentencing juveniles to adult facilities for their crimes is becoming a common trend in the justice system today; however it is not a deterrent whatsoever. “The current policies of juvenile bind over to adult criminal court and severe sentencing have been unsuccessful
The death penalty is punishment by execution, state-sanctioned and administered by the government in the United States. The death penalty can actually come in several different forms, including lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and hanging. However, the most commonly used in the United States is lethal injection (Death Penalty Information Center, 2016). This form of punishment was actually greatly influenced by Great Britain back in the 17th century, and the first execution of a juvenile offender, Thomas Graunger of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, occurred in 1642 (Death Penalty Information Center, 2016). The death penalty for juveniles have many reasons that are discussed regarding why the death penalty should not
There are many different problems that plague the prison system today. The biggest issue today is overcrowding. This is a major problem that is effecting every prison system throughout the country. There are many people that say that the judges are the biggest reason for this. However, if people would not commit crimes, then the judges would not have as many people that need to be punished, and that would mean that there will be less people going to prison, and more people that are better citizens by staying out of trouble. If we could all learn to stay out of trouble, then the prison system, the judges, the law enforcement officers, the courts, and all the rest of the divisions inside the justice branch, will have less work to do, and will have less people that are needing to be punished. At the same time, the law makers need to figure out some way to make the punishments for the crimes different so that we can keep people from being repeat offenders. The people that are the issue here are those that are repeat offenders. What this means is that people that are getting out of prison have not
The United States, a country who has prisons filled with juvenile delinquents. Many of the offenders are arrested for status offenses, but there are also offenders who are incarcerated for serious crimes. Are these offenders getting the treatment needed to succeed after their release? Are the punishments in the juvenile detention centers creating more problems? Is the juvenile justice system addressing the needs of those juveniles participating in the system? The answer to these questions will be answered from viewing three separate documentaries on the juvenile justice system.
The increased number of juveniles committing serious offenses is creating a worrying trend. In 2010 alone about 1.6 million juveniles below the age of 18 were arrested, among those arrested approximately 1.4 million of these cases were handled by the court (Sickmund and Puzzanchera 118,151). Many of these juveniles end up being incarcerated in juvenile facilities, while some are transferred to criminal or adult’s courts where they are likely to end up in adult prisons. In the recent past there have been calls for tougher punishments for juvenile offenders. The call for tougher punishment has resulted from a trend of an increasing number of “super predators”, brutally remorseless
If parents are held accountable for the actions of their children does that send a message that the children themselves are blameless for their actions? My belief is that these two ideas are not mutually exclusive, and that children and parents can both be held liable. I see no reason why the children and the parents and the teens shouldn’t share in the responsibility for criminal behavior on the part of the child.