Little Kids in Big Adult Trouble
The way that we treat children in America when it comes to crime has been change as much with the times as any other subject. From our start as a nation just breaking away from England to today as a world super power, we are constantly changing our position on whether or not children know right from wrong, or have the capacity to look into the long term consequences of their actions. One thing that is for certain we have been getting tougher and tougher on young offenders. Now, whether or not this is working is the issue that will be analyzed.
Historical Background
Since the 1700’s America has been treating children as adults in a court of law. According to an article written by FRONTLINE for PBS, juveniles …show more content…
Some of the major debate on this are that some juveniles that go to adult criminal court actually have some advantages. Some of these advantages include minors have the right to a jury trial in adult, were as in most states juvenile court does not have juries. (Michon) Also, juries may become more sympathetic to a minor on trial, such as in the case of Taurus Buchanan, who was charged with second-degree murder, when he was 16 years old, for throwing a single punch that killed 12-year-old Jacques Brown. (JOHNSON, C. G., & ARMSTRONG, K. (2016).). Now, Buchanan was ultimately convicted and sentenced to prison as an adult, but as the time passed the victims mom stated “he did his time…. I forgive him”, and even the prosecutor that ultimately convinced the jury to convict Buchanan said that he felt bad about putting him away for so long, looking back on it he probably should have offered him a plea deal (JOHNSON, C. G., & ARMSTRONG, K. (2016).). This shows that even though it’s easy to say you did the crime you do the time, well that’s not always too easy to do, especially when it is a child. Now this is not always the case some people view the idea of juveniles going to adult criminal court some might argue that a juveniles are not old enough to grasp of severity of their decision or fully understand right from wrong; and there for should not be tried as adult because their brains are not fully matured like an adult brain is.
The way that we treat children in America when it comes to crime has been change as much with the times as any other subject. From our start as a nation just breaking away from England to today as a world super power, we are constantly changing our position on whether or not children know right from wrong, or have the capacity to look into the long term consequences of their actions. One thing that is for certain we have been getting tougher and tougher on young offenders. Now, whether or not this is working is the issue that will be analyzed.
Historical Background
Since the 1700’s America has been treating children as adults in a court of law. According to an article written by FRONTLINE for PBS, juveniles …show more content…
Some of the major debate on this are that some juveniles that go to adult criminal court actually have some advantages. Some of these advantages include minors have the right to a jury trial in adult, were as in most states juvenile court does not have juries. (Michon) Also, juries may become more sympathetic to a minor on trial, such as in the case of Taurus Buchanan, who was charged with second-degree murder, when he was 16 years old, for throwing a single punch that killed 12-year-old Jacques Brown. (JOHNSON, C. G., & ARMSTRONG, K. (2016).). Now, Buchanan was ultimately convicted and sentenced to prison as an adult, but as the time passed the victims mom stated “he did his time…. I forgive him”, and even the prosecutor that ultimately convinced the jury to convict Buchanan said that he felt bad about putting him away for so long, looking back on it he probably should have offered him a plea deal (JOHNSON, C. G., & ARMSTRONG, K. (2016).). This shows that even though it’s easy to say you did the crime you do the time, well that’s not always too easy to do, especially when it is a child. Now this is not always the case some people view the idea of juveniles going to adult criminal court some might argue that a juveniles are not old enough to grasp of severity of their decision or fully understand right from wrong; and there for should not be tried as adult because their brains are not fully matured like an adult brain is.