Should Kids Be Rehabilitated

The child is a criminal or the criminal is a child was a question asked at the beginning of the semester, the stance I took then is the same stance I take now, the criminal is a child. While I don’t believe every single child can be compared to one another without the ability to exclude some from the group, I believe looking at this approach as the criminal is a child is the best way to go. When deciding why I stand by my earlier stance, I looked at what our goal was and why we have consequence for our actions. Our country has the goal that by sentencing children to jail or prison we want them to be rehabilitated to re-join society. Our goal is for them to learn a lesson from the punishment and never commit another crime . . . That leaves the question of whether the child can be rehabilitated or if they are aware of their actions and no hope for rehabilitation. …show more content…
Simmons, they contribute the accountability of juveniles to immature and irresponsible behavior. (Roper v. Simmons. 2005) Meaning that they haven’t fully developed in the way they think or act. Louis Kraus a forensic psychiatrist at Rush Medical Center says, “Children do not develop a sense of remorse until they are five or six. The part of our brains that controls emotion does not finish growing until our early 20’s.” (Kraus) While some say they were able to do the crime they should be able to do the time, we need to evaluate if that is a realistic way of thinking or not. Their brains are not fully developed which allows us to be able to mold or in other words rehabilitate them, teaching them right from