The news Headlines today are blowing up with the craziest stories “Boy Charged with killing 8-year old girl over the argument about puppies” (ABC news). Kids are being convicted of murder and tried as adults but they are juveniles so the question is “What is the fine line between intentional and unintentional killing?” The difference between being tried as adult and being tried as a juvenile? How does the justice system treat those with mental disorders? In Just Mercy, written by Bryan Stevenson there were many cases of children committing crimes that involve murder and are sent to death row, or imprisonment without parole.…
The Supreme Court ruled, “Capital punishment must be limited to offenders who commit a narrow category of the most serious crimes and extreme culpability makes them deserving of execution.” www.casebriefs.com This is due to the fact that juveniles lack maturity and understanding of responsibility. They are also more vulnerable or susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures. The courts also noted that the character of a juvenile is not as well formed as an adult.…
When it comes to determining what age a child can understand the difference between right and wrong, I think it is determined by the individual child and the way they were raised. In general, I think a child as young as 6 or 7 can fully understand the difference between right and wrong. However, I do not think at that age they understand the consequences of their actions, therefore they should not be held accountable for their actions. Just because a child knows the difference between right and wrong, I think they lack mens rea. A developing mind is not complete until around age 25.…
Lastly, juveniles have a background or grew up in a bad environment that causes them to murder, or cause other heinous crimes. For example, Brandon McInerney was tried as an adult for shooting his former classmate, Larry King. He shot King in the head twice. Sandy Banks first highlights that Brandon McInerney is an athlete, who grew up in a bad environment from his parent’s home and is mostly teased in school by his friends because Larry King had a crush on him. “Brandon was a strapping athlete from a violent home [...]…
They might have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time and git themselves involved in crimes activity, resulting in a life sentence. Some people believe that children are old enough to know exactly what they are doing. Jenkins gives an example of this in her Juvenile Justice Information Exchange article "On Punishment…
Since adolescents are the easiest to persuade into doing bad things, they are punished harsher than adults. It’s a sort of scare tactic but it’s victimizing all children who have been convicted for a crime. The court system are assigning or giving children harsher penalties due to their age. Adults may receive only one life sentence without parole, where on the other hand a minor may receive up to four life sentences. In the documentary (Children in Prison for Life Sentence)…
Juveniles are not mentally capable to understand the crime they commit like an adult is, thus they should not be tried as an adult. A child, just like any living thing, goes through developmental stages. Throughout their growth periods, juveniles learn new skills and so do their brains. In a study, “Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis of New York University led comprehensive diagnostic evaluations of 14 juveniles on death row (at that time, 40 percent) in four states. She found that nine had major neuropsychological disorders and seven had psychotic disorders since early childhood” (Ortiz).…
They don’t evaluate choices as carefully. They have poor impulse control. They are biologically vulnerable to peers and acting out in some circumstances — and all of that relates directly to the question of culpability” yet, nearly three thousand children are still tried as adults nationwide and have been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole because of past poor choices (Cost of Mass…
Adam Liptak’s article, Locked Away Forever? The Supreme Court Is Considering Whether Life Imprisonment For Teens Offenders Constitutes ‘Cruel and Unusual’ Punishment, asserts that in most cases, “juveniles cross the line, and they have to be treated as adults and punished as adults” (Liptak 14). Age does not determine maturity, nor does it determine responsibility. There is no telling whether someone means it or not when they do something they are not supposed to do. When a child commits murder or rape, people say it is no big deal because they are just kids and were not thinking straight.…
Juveniles are getting harsher sentences than adults because of their age and the nature of crime…
Children are usually seen as innocent, as they play around with others and are just balls of energy. Often seen as simply kids who have no experience in the outside world until they grow older. However, sometimes a child’s play can go wrong and can affect another’s life. When these incidents happen where a death is involved, it’s often easy for society to look at the offender as a murder who should be in prison for the rest of their life despite what age the offender may be. While juveniles committing heinous crimes should be punished, they should also be given the chance to rejoin society at an appropriate age; therefore juveniles who redeem themselves should be able to get released earlier and be able to put their life together.…
There have been many opinions on juveniles being convicted as adults on the crimes they have committed. When it comes to some of these harsh crimes, who could not punish the individual to the fullest? It does not matter how old a person is because everyone knows the difference between right and wrong. If someone is raised differently and believes it is okay to murder another human, than they cannot just change their mindset. An individual that makes and adult decision should have the same consequences.…
Some happen to follow and commit crimes, they believe in monkey see monkey do. This is unjust because there are adults that commit crimes and are being punished for it yet the sixteen and seventeen year olds who commit the same crime and don't get the same consequence. This sometimes results in the children not learning their lesson and later going on and behaving the same way. According to Jennifer Jenkins from the article “On Punishment and teen Killers” she states, “16 or 17 year old is capable of forming such requisite criminal intent”. All teenagers are knowledgeable enough to understand right from wrong.…
Juveniles should not be tried as adults for it is wrong to hold adolescents, under the legal age, to adult standards. If children do not even receive the same rights as adults in the first place, it makes no sense to try them in adult court. These juveniles should have the opportunity to be rehabilitated in a positive manner, for they tend to come from troubled households and violent neighborhoods. In over half of the cases these troubled kids don’t know any different way than a life of crime when surrounded by both social and environmental factors that influence their delinquent actions. One must commemorate that juveniles are mentally underdeveloped, and still have time to innovate if their issues are dealt with precisely and accurately.…
The decision of juveniles being tried as adults in the world of criminal justice has usually been an object of controversy. Some agree that an adolescent who commits a serious crime like murder deserves to be penalized exactly like an adult; while others declare that a minor should not face the same punishment as an adult. However, no matter how severe or appalling a crime may be, juveniles should not be tried as adults; the reason being that everyone should be granted the chance to learn from their mistakes. Juveniles should not be punished as adults, simply because they biologically distinct from adults. Teenagers are the midsection between children and adults.…