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Children Tried as Adults Essay

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It is unfair for American children to know that though they can be innocent, they are treated as adults when they turn thirteen in some states. Although children have to learn the difference between what is right and wrong in their first years of life, most of them do not have enough experience to show that they are capable of living within society independently. Nonetheless, when they commit a serious crime-accidentally or purposely, the state mandate allows the judicatures to try them as an adult. There is a flaw here because they do not have a set personality, nor they can readily understand how humans abide by the law, nor do they have the cognitive ability to understand how to live in society. This paper will argue that the idea of …show more content…

What would make some sense is that people under the age of 17 should go to juvenile hall (or youth detention center) for their punishment than directly to adult prison. Though very similar, there is a subtle difference between the juvenile hall and the adult prison, but the use of the YDC is decreasing because states are increasing the use of sending the delinquent child directly to an adult prison. Both the YDC and prison are used to hold those that committed a crime, but there is a reason children and adults are separated. According to Radek Gadek in his research (2012), he found that the separation of child and adult prisoners “is to insulate juveniles from ‘bad influences,’ to protect them, and to attempt to curb criminal tendencies before adulthood is reached. Related, there are many levels of captivity for the inmates in adult jails e.g., maximum security, low security and regional jails to name a few. Other than boot camp, children committing a grand crime have few levels in the juvenile hall, but the primary reason for the YDC is to educate and rehabilitate in a more lenient approach than confine the troubled adolescents (Gadek, 2012).
Though the YDC have some flaws like child treatment abuse and neglect, it is still better

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