Juveniles Should Not Be Tried As Adults

Juvenile justice is a huge topic with many opinions, but juveniles should be tried as adults. If juveniles are tried as adults the crime world be better and make the United States better. Juveniles and adults have equal consquicences for crimes, it can change the life of the juveniles, and it will be safer for the community.

One of my sources I'm going to use is the article “Trying Juveniles as Adults: An Analysis of State Transfer Laws and Reporting” written by Patrick Griffin. This paper caught my attention with the amount of visuals this paper had. This paper gave me graphs that showed me how states have different laws about how a juvenile can be tried within the states. Another thing that caught my attention from this paper was how transfer laws are when a court put a juvenile to be tried in an adult court. This law also is different from one state to another. They all fall under three basic categories. These categories are Judicial Waiver Laws, Concurrent Judicial Laws and Statutory Exclusion Laws. One fact that shocked me was in 1994 the number of violent

Kenzie Houk had everything going for her. She was twenty-six, engaged to the love of her life, and was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. In the late winter of 2009, her four-year-old daughter waddled in her bedroom, hoping to surprise her mommy with a good morning smile. Instead, she found her mother with a bullet through her head. Eleven-year-old Jordan Brown, the soon-to-be stepson of Kenzie Houk, was arrested and charged with homicide, pulling the trigger before he went to school. There were two counts of homicide, one for Kenzie Houk and the other for her baby. Brown was tried in juvenile court and sentenced to a residential treatment facility until the age of twenty-one. To Kenzie Houk’s family, Brown’s sentence would never live up to that her four-year-old and seven-year old daughters would have to serve. “The day Kenzie was murdered, the whole family was served with a life sentence,” said Debbie Houk, the victim’s mother. “[Her daughters] are serving life right now. They are never going to see their mom” (Chen). Serious juvenile crimes, similar to this, cannot be properly justified in the juvenile justice system. Juveniles should be tried in the adult criminal court system for serious crimes because of the lack of severity in the juvenile court system, increased youth crime and recidivism rates, and the mental maturity of juvenile offenders.

Teens who commit crimes shouldn’t be charged as adults. It also has to do with the crime, if a teen breaks into a car he/she shouldn’t be charged as adults they should be charged as juvenile. Kids will be kids they will make mistakes but doesn't mean they should have their life taken from them. In the article (Kids are kids-Until they commit crimes) says “It’s a glaring inconsistency that’s getting more glaring by the hour as children as young as twelve and thirteen are being charged as adults in America’s courts.” young teens are getting their life taken away from them, they haven’t learned right from wrong if the court system just gives them life.

On June 16th, 1944, the state of South Carolina executed George Stinney, Jr. He was fourteen years, six months, and five days old—the youngest person ever executed in the United States in the 20th Century. Stinney, who was black, was convicted of murdering two white girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8, with a railroad spike. The trial lasted three hours, and the all-white jury deliberated for 10 minutes before sentencing George Stinney to death in the electric chair. At Stinney's execution six weeks later, the guards had difficulty strapping him to the electric chair (he was 5' 1" and weighed just over 90 pounds). During the electrocution, the jolt shook the adult-sized mask from

Around 250,000 youth are tried, sentenced or incarcerated as adults in the United States every year. On any given day around 10,000 juveniles are housed in adult jails and prisons. Of the juveniles held in adult jails, most of them are awaiting trial, as 39 states are required that youth charged as adults be held in an adult jail before they are tried. Though as many as a half of them will not be convicted or will be sent back to juvenile justice systems, most will have spent at least one month in adult jail, and one in five of them will have spent over six months there. The juveniles held in adult prisons have been convicted as adults; the laws and standards of this practice vary widely by state.

I believe that juveniles do deserve to be tried as adults and not be given the leeway of being called just a “teenager”. As a young adult i just turned 18 not too long ago and i can tell you from my own experience and the experience of my close friends that teenagers or anyone from the age of 12-18 does know right from wrong and fully acts upon their own decision and conscious. It would be very disrespectful to anger the victims on letting out the killer. I know that if my family member was murdered by a teenager and 10 years later they let them out, i would be beyond angered with their decision to even give them a second chance.

Youth is defined as the period between childhood and maturity; an adolescent who have not fully developed. An adult is a person who is fully developed and is mature. Juveniles should not be tried as an adult because they are too young. Even though, some children believe that they are grown and can make their own decisions, they still are young.

Juveniles should not be tried as adults because it is proven that children are incapable of making a rational, mature decision on their own. Adolescents have a shorter experience in the world, their brains are still developing, they do not have the same responsibilities or rights as adults and they are easily influenced at this age. Let 's say a child around the age of twelve is playing with two other friends at his house. His mother and father both work constantly so these children are alone. They are snooping around in his dad 's room and find a gun. Not being old enough to understand or realize it 's not a good idea they begin to play with it. One of the children pulls the trigger not considering what could happen. He accidentally shoots on of the other children and he was instantly killed. They decide to call 911 and before they arrive the child that accidentally shot the other tells his friend to tell them that it was his fault because hed get in trouble by his mom. The boy agrees and tells the police it was his fault and he is sent to adult prison for the maximum sentence. Children are both easily influenced and not as intelligent compared to an adult. These children are so immature and underdeveloped they should not and cannot make rational decisions on their own.

Are you under 18 years old? If you answered yes, then DO NOT do anything really bad because you could get in serious trouble, including jail. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of minors are put in trials where are adults are put. With these conditions, the jury or judge will give them adult consequences such as adult jails. Juveniles should not be tried as adults because they aren’t fully developed and don’t know the complete consequences of their actions.

Should juvenile ever be tried as adults? Yes, they should get punished for their acts. Just because they're just kids they don't get the full punishment they should get. If there was less juvenile crimmals out in the streets, it would be a lot safer for everyone.

Finally, I believe that by being rehabilitated the juvenile will have a better chance at life because eventually they will be back in society.

as young as thirteen are sentenced as juveniles to life in prison without parole. Americans today

The debate on whether or not to try a child as an adult has been raging for many years. Today’s society needs to be cautious with the way they handle juvenile criminals. Our prison system is already busting at the seams with blood-thirsty criminals. Tossing a twelve year old in a prison system designed for adults is dangerous. A chance for rehabilitation should be afforded to every juvenile offender. However, not all juveniles can be rehabilitated and we owe it to the victims, and their families, to ensure that justice prevails. Juvenile offenders should not be prosecuted as adults, unless extenuating circumstances exist that prevents them from being rehabilitated.

In the recent years, cases of juvenile crimes have been decreasing to its lower rates since the 1980’s which is good. However, there are still plenty of juvenile crimes happening. There has been a big debate going on about whether juveniles should be tried as adults or juveniles, and things just keep getting more and more out of hand. Juveniles are being tried as adults and that is unacceptable. Juveniles should not be tried in adult courts regardless of their crime because they are simply not prepared to handle all the pressure and the problems that will cause them being sent to adult prison.