Essay On Adolescence Should Be Tried As Children

Adolescence is a time of transition in which children go through physical and emotional changes that transition them into young adulthood. In this time of transition and change, the position the adolescents within the legal system is suspect. There is an ambiguity about the position of adolescents in the legal system because of the question about whether to treat adolecents as adults or as children. That is to say, there are two opposing opinions regarding the treatment of adolescents within the legal system. The first view is called the “adolescent-as-child” view. In this view, adolescents are more closely related to children in their capacities than they are to adults. Therefore, they deserve a different set of standards that apply due to …show more content…
That is to say, I believe that adolescents should be tried as “children” because of their lack of decision making skills and their increased tendency to enter into emotional extremes comparatively to adults. For example, male adolescents tend to be more irritable, aggressive, and impulsive. Female adolescents tend to enter more depressive moods. This variability in comparison to adults does diminish the agreeability of the adolescent-as-adult view. However, at the same time, the adolescent-as-child view must allow for some exceptions. To put this differently, it would be problematic, on a moral level, to consider all adolescents who commit crimes, such as first degree murder, should be prosecuted as youths and not as adults. For example, in Ottawa a teen was recently sentenced as an adult for crimes such as “human trafficking, making child pornography, sexual assault, child luring, utter threats, and unlawful confinement” (Ottawa teen pimp, 2014). That is to say, the reason she was tried as an adult was because her actions reflected deplorable crimes that needed careful thought and planning. The courts try to find a balance between when to treat an adolescent as an adult and when not