Should Child Soldiers Be Criminals

As a child did you ever take the luxuries in your life for granted? The ability to feel safe, with a family that supports you. Well, many kids in other countries don’t have that feeling. They have been recruited into war, and trained to kill. But, many of the kids didn’t have a choice to join or not. These child soldiers do have the ability to change when they get out of the war. Now some may argue that they’re criminals, and should be treated the same as any other adult soldier. But, they should be allowed to go through rehabilitation, and not be considered as a criminal, because they do feel remorse about killing, they’re forced to fight in the war, and they’re brainwashed into thinking killing is right.
In the article, “Witness: A Child Soldier’s Darfur Confession – ‘I shot her. She is dead.’”(2015) by Amy Braunschweiger, it says, “I lost my temper and I shot her.… She is dead.”” To be fair there are circumstances where child soldiers feel nothing over killing innocent people. It is only under those circumstances, however, some child soldiers …show more content…
Some people think that they’re criminals, because they have killed hundreds. But, in reality they should have a chance to turn their lives around for the good. In some cases, child soldiers have been able to turn their lives around. For instances the author of A Long Way Gone, went from being a child soldier to writing a very well know book. This proves that child soldiers do have the ability to change, and they’re not killing machines for forever. Which is exactly why child soldiers should be treated as victims. As stated earlier, child soldiers do feel remorse about killing, they’re forced to fight in the war, and they’re brainwashed into thinking killing is right. I want to leave you with a question; if you or someone close to you were in the position of being a child soldier wouldn’t you think they should be treated as a victim not a