Should Juveniles Punished or Try as Adults - Research Paper Example

?Should Juveniles be Tried as Adults? As our children grow up in an increasingly violent world, they are led down certain paths that could result in their misdeeds and violent actions. A child who has an unhappy family life may find himself as part of a gang in order to feel like he belongs or he could perform petty thefts in order to call attention to himself. It is because of this lack of guidance in a child or teenager's life that the juvenile courts were created. Juvenile courts were created with the sole purpose of rehabilitating the child / teen offender rather than incarcerating him for a crime he committed. The reasoning behind this is actually quite simple. The full grown adults believe that although a child / teenager is involved in a very adult crime, such as murder, he does not truly grasp the meaning and reality of his actions. One mistake during his childhood should not condemn him to a life of hard core punishment. Although such argument tend to hold water among child psyche experts, parents, and some sympathetic courts, the reality of the situation is that the child committed a major crime. A crime that could land an adult in prison for a very long time. Nobody can ever be sure that a child did the crime “with little understanding of his actions”. If a juvenile committed the offense, he definitely has at least a basic understanding of what the outcome of his actions might be. Therefore, he should not be sheltered from the results of his actions. Rather, he must be made to face up to the resulting consequences of his actions. That is the only way to truly rehabilitate a juvenile delinquent and make sure that he does not grow up to become a social problem. A social problem who as an adult, poses a grave threat to our children, our livelihood, and our very lives. People like former Gov. Jeb Bush believe that “"There should be some sensitivity that a 14-year-old is not a little adult." (Reaves, 2011). His comment is based on the understanding that a fourteen year old does not have the mental capacity to formulate a murder scenario, get his hands on a lethal weapon such as a gun, and use it against someone whom he feels did him wrong. That might have been true during the time of the youth of the governor. However, the increasingly violent movies shown on television, cable TV, and the internet has removed that cloak of innocence in a child. These days, a child of 14 has the full understanding and ability to kill anybody as evidenced by cases like 14 year old Nathan Brazil who was found guilty of second degree murder after killing his teacher in 2011. (Reaves, 2011) Experts who study the human brain say that it was wrong for those Brazil to have been tried as an adult. Their argument being based on their research studies indicating that “...the brain's prefrontal lobe, which some scientists speculate plays a crucial role in inhibiting inappropriate behavior, may not reach full development until age 20. “ (Reaves, 2011) If we are to believe the experts about how long it takes for the human brain to actually develop, then we would all still be juvenile delinquents at the age of 20, not held responsible for being drunk drivers, doing drugs, or bullying other kids because “Hey, I'm just a kid. I know nothing!”. I sincerely doubt that most parents and others who are involved in the life of the delinquent would truly buy such a pathetic explanation or excuse in relation to the actions of a juvenile delinquent. By saying that a child does not have the mental capacity to understand his course of actions, we are giving this soon to be adult an easy out. Failing to take into consideration that these children are exposed to violence every single day of their lives. (Schwartz, 2010) Be it in the media, the movies, or even at school, these children see increasingly disturbing amounts of violence and, because of the way that adult news programs report the events, give them some sort of understanding as to what happened and why. Indeed, they may not have the same capacity as an adult to plan the execution of certain criminal behaviors. But that is not to say that the criminal mind is not at work in a child who has grown up to believe that violent crimes and theft are a normal part of daily life already. As such, it becomes difficult for them to discern right from wrong. Therefore, it is up to the courts to remind them of what is expected of them after they have committed as crime by allowing them to experience the first hand consequences of their actions. If it is true that the human mind is still developing at that age, then the child will have been taught a lesson that he will be hard pressed to forget in the future. Our country was founded on the premise of every single citizen being held responsible for their actions. Children were put to work and educated to become responsible parts of society from a very early age. They understood what was expected of them and they did their part to positively contribute to the system. Our ancestors were raised without the excuse of being a child and therefore not responsible for their actions and they grew up to be the founders, movers, shakers, and shapers of this great country. Juvenile courts are in place these days to absolve a child of his actions. By not punishing the child and trying to simply rehabilitate him by making him understand what happened simply helps him feel like the real victim, rather than what he is, the perpetrator of a crime. They say that what a person will be as an adult, you will see semblances of in him as a child. Therefore, a criminal child has a tremendous tendency to grow up as a law breaking, jail-time serving adult. There are no ifs or buts about it. A clear example of how the development of the human brain works in a “child” who truly has criminal tendencies can be seen in the case of Sean Shevlino, who in 2006 robbed a Piggly Wiggly store after telling his friends his plans regarding the execution of the robbery. He had a well thought out and laid out plan. Obviously he had taken great pains to observe the actions of the counter people at the walk in store and knew exactly where the money was placed and how much time he had if he wanted to complete the robbery without being caught. His plan, was to wait for the cashier to take a break and then hop over the counter, open the money box, and take the cash inside the money box. (Merrefield, 2012). This simple robbery was just the start of the crime spree for Sean. He knew how to get easy money and he and his friends were going to make sure that they had more than enough of it for their whims and caprices as “kids”. So, can we still believe that a “child” does not have the mental capacity to strategically plan a crime? Yes, our child experts all agree that a person under the age of 16 is still a child for some reason. This case clearly shows that they do have such a capacity and therefore, should be tried as adults in court. They are in full control of their actions and have a clear understanding of what they are about to do. It is said that the police must always consider the mental capacity of the person being accused of a crime prior to hauling that person off to jail or juvenile hall. But how can the police be analytical in such situations where the child obviously has a violent streak and an obvious understanding of the crime and how it was to be committed? In such instances, it is no longer proper to try a child in juvenile court. He has developed far beyond the mental capacity expected of a person of that particular age and should therefore be made to answer for his crimes in the adult way that his brain already functions. This is no longer time for kid gloves and boarding school for the like minded child criminals. Which is what juvenile detention is all about. They need to be faced with the true severity of their actions and, once they pay the actual consequences for it, perhaps they will truly find themselves on a different path rather than raking up a police record which includes sealed juvenile records. Let us not forget that over the past decade, the childhood crimes have been escalating in tendency and more intricate in plotting. These are no longer “soon to be mentally developed and stable” children. These are children who know exactly what they want and how to get it. Stimson (2012), explains that: “Some juveniles commit crimes so horrific in their depravity that justice could not be carried out in the juvenile system. Other crimes, and their perpetrators, evince maturity commensurate with adult punishment. “ The fact that juvenile crimes are now being executed with the precision and cunning of adult capacity should remove automatically remove the protection that the juvenile courts offer these dangerous youths. It is important that the public never forget that these children have the same capacity for crime as their adult counterparts. Specially in cases such as 16 year old Sara Johnson who plotted to “... murder her parents and pin the crime on an intruder. Her case was transferred to adult court, and Johnson was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. “ (Stimson, 2012) Take into consideration the fact that “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, 2010). The amount of crime committed by juveniles with the precision of adult planning is something that most likely comes with the evolution of mankind. As such, our justice system must also reinvent itself in order to ensure the continued protection of the public from these young deviant minds. By allowing the courts to try these juveniles as adults under “waivers” (n.d.. “When Juveniles are Tried in Adult Court”) we will allow the process of proper rehabilitation of these young individuals to happen on terms and conditions that they are fully capable of understanding. No more kid gloves, no more cloak of protection from the juvenile courts. It is important that these “children” be tried as adults for crimes that they committed because they need to understand that life is not a CSI television drama. You do the crime, you do the time. You don't get a free pass to walk the streets as a free man. You deal with the consequences of what you did. That is real life. That is how life lessons are properly taught, and that his how you get through to children and scare them into never committing another crime for as long as they live. Sources Khan, H. (2010). Juvenile justice: too young for life in prison?. ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/life-prison-juvenile-offenders-adult- courts/story?id=11129594#.UVjNbVfJK4p Merrefield, C. (2012). Should juvenile crimes be sentenced like adults?. The Daily Beast. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/26/should- juvenile-criminals-be-sentenced-like-adults.html N.A. (n.d.). When juveniles are tried in adult court. Retrieved from http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/juveniles-youth-adult-criminal-court- 32226.html Reaves, J. (2001). Should the law treat kids and adults differently?. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,110232,00.html Schwartz, R. (2010). Kids should never be tried as adults. CNN. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/18/schwartz.kids.trials/index.html Stimson, C. (2012). Adult punishment should be an option. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/06/05/when-to- punish-a-young-offender-and-when-to-rehabilitate/adult-punishments-for- juveniles Read More