Imagine this. You are happily married with an amazing son who is your whole world. He is currently fourteen years old and nothing could be better. One day he is peer pressured into holding a gun for a friend who claims it is no big deal. His friend tells him to shoot if anyone comes around the corner while he breaks into the closed store. He hears a noise, and reacting too quickly to process, he pulls the trigger and kills the innocent woman simply going for a walk. He is sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole and your baby boy is gone forever. Would you try to challenge the law? Would you agree with the majority who say life in prison without parole for juveniles is unfair? In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled juveniles could no longer be sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole, but if the heinous crime ended in the killing of one or more persons, that criminal should absolutely have no second chances, no matter their age. Majority agrees to give these criminals a second chance at rehabilitation and a chance out on the streets again.
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Minority disagrees and for good reason. Teenagers and younger are influenced by many factors: friends, media, peer pressure. All these things cause kids to act irrationally and quickly without thinking of the consequences of these actions. Many want to blame these actions on their lack of brain development. Paul Thompson writes in his article that youths have a “diminished capacity for controlling erratic behavior [due to] massive loss of brain tissue [which causes inability to] control impulses and self-control” (Startling). Many court cases have tried to use this lack of brain tissue as an excuse for committing their crime. Youths do have less knowledge, but their ability to know if shooting someone is a bad act, is still present. Arguing this as being a legitimate excuse, Jennifer Jenkins points out that if “brain development were the reason, then teens would kill at roughly the same rates all over the world. [but] They do not” (On). So, researchers cannot blame the brain development, so they search for something else to excuse them from their terrible crimes. Putting a youth into a jail or prison has to be seen as simply that, not putting them into an “adult” prison. All the courts do is try to find some type of factor that can be used to excuse for this criminal to not be put into the system for life. No excuse can cover taking a loved one from a family who did not deserve it. One excuse people will try to use is if a youth is sentenced to life, then “they were denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and left without help or hope” (Juveniles). A twenty year old sentenced to life without an issue is missing out on the exact same thing. Or even a thirty year old, no matter the age, they are missing out on life. They took that chance at experiencing life away from themselves, no one forced them to pull the trigger. Every article scientists, researchers, teachers, or just the average author writes, who agrees with that majority, claim that juveniles “are not adults” (Kids). That is not a false statement because they are not adults, but they
Minority disagrees and for good reason. Teenagers and younger are influenced by many factors: friends, media, peer pressure. All these things cause kids to act irrationally and quickly without thinking of the consequences of these actions. Many want to blame these actions on their lack of brain development. Paul Thompson writes in his article that youths have a “diminished capacity for controlling erratic behavior [due to] massive loss of brain tissue [which causes inability to] control impulses and self-control” (Startling). Many court cases have tried to use this lack of brain tissue as an excuse for committing their crime. Youths do have less knowledge, but their ability to know if shooting someone is a bad act, is still present. Arguing this as being a legitimate excuse, Jennifer Jenkins points out that if “brain development were the reason, then teens would kill at roughly the same rates all over the world. [but] They do not” (On). So, researchers cannot blame the brain development, so they search for something else to excuse them from their terrible crimes. Putting a youth into a jail or prison has to be seen as simply that, not putting them into an “adult” prison. All the courts do is try to find some type of factor that can be used to excuse for this criminal to not be put into the system for life. No excuse can cover taking a loved one from a family who did not deserve it. One excuse people will try to use is if a youth is sentenced to life, then “they were denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and left without help or hope” (Juveniles). A twenty year old sentenced to life without an issue is missing out on the exact same thing. Or even a thirty year old, no matter the age, they are missing out on life. They took that chance at experiencing life away from themselves, no one forced them to pull the trigger. Every article scientists, researchers, teachers, or just the average author writes, who agrees with that majority, claim that juveniles “are not adults” (Kids). That is not a false statement because they are not adults, but they