Are they Kids or are they Adults?
According to the publication Juvenile Felony Defendants in Criminal Courts: Survey of 40 Counties, 1998 on The Bureau of Juvenile Statistics website shows that in 1998 over seven thousand hundred juveniles have been charged with felonies in adult criminal court, out of the seven thousand one hundred thirty five felony defendants twenty four percent of them were charged with violent crimes and that is in forty states in the United States. The argument remains however around this one question, “Should kids be accused of violent crimes as adults? Why?” Kids should not be tried as adults.
If a minor is to commit a heinous crime and is sent to prison, logically the child …show more content…
She refers to James Q. Wilson a professor at Harvard and a criminal expert, “Wicked people exist. Nothing avails except to set them apart from innocent people” (Jenkins 1). Jenkins makes a true point but exiling them from the outside world will only prevent them from getting better. There are bad people in the world it’s a sad truth but as Thompson said a teen’s brain is not fully developed, it may not excuse the fact that they have committed a crime but it shows that they are not mentally an adult. Juvenile criminals can still e helped but must require psychological treatment even if not mentally unstable. There has to be someone that needs to tell them that what they did is not right, there is a consequence, and there is guidance to help prevent it from happening again. Jenkins also states, “We in America have to own this particular problem, with weapons so easily available to our youth, and the violence-loving culture in which we raise them” (Jenkins 5). It is true that in America people are able to access weapons very easily such as guns, tasers, and knives. Video games such as Mortal Kombat, Farcry, and Gears of War have a great influence in violence involving weapons, combat, and gore. Not only is it video gaming but also music is to blame, Hip Hop and rap are the most listened genres in current society that involves singers like Snoop …show more content…
"That is until they foul up. Until they commit crimes. And the bigger the crime, the more eager we are to call them adults" (Lundstrom 5). It may have not occurred to some people that children can commit a crime due to outrage, depression, or influence. Children are capable of many crimes that can be pushed or influenced upon due to social life, family, or too exposed with how the world. Some crimes are on accident and some on purpose. Lundstroms quote states the mass of the crime the more they should be tried as adults. What if it was on accident? What if someone peer pressured the child to commit the crime? What if the child was so frustrated and so furious with his father abusing him and his mother and he tried to protect the person who birthed him? Some juveniles are also pushed because of poverty. So if a child has killed someone who was attacking him should he be tried as an adult? Many of the crimes committed by teens and children were from something that has grown to them, not from the overall idea of gore and fun. Most kids do not even know where their organs are placed. Lundstrom agrees later on and agrees with Thompson, "They are not adults" (Lundstrom 15). As much as how bad the crime is or how heinous it is, they are not adults, juveniles have a better chance at redemption than adults for the adult brain is developed it cannot be
According to the publication Juvenile Felony Defendants in Criminal Courts: Survey of 40 Counties, 1998 on The Bureau of Juvenile Statistics website shows that in 1998 over seven thousand hundred juveniles have been charged with felonies in adult criminal court, out of the seven thousand one hundred thirty five felony defendants twenty four percent of them were charged with violent crimes and that is in forty states in the United States. The argument remains however around this one question, “Should kids be accused of violent crimes as adults? Why?” Kids should not be tried as adults.
If a minor is to commit a heinous crime and is sent to prison, logically the child …show more content…
She refers to James Q. Wilson a professor at Harvard and a criminal expert, “Wicked people exist. Nothing avails except to set them apart from innocent people” (Jenkins 1). Jenkins makes a true point but exiling them from the outside world will only prevent them from getting better. There are bad people in the world it’s a sad truth but as Thompson said a teen’s brain is not fully developed, it may not excuse the fact that they have committed a crime but it shows that they are not mentally an adult. Juvenile criminals can still e helped but must require psychological treatment even if not mentally unstable. There has to be someone that needs to tell them that what they did is not right, there is a consequence, and there is guidance to help prevent it from happening again. Jenkins also states, “We in America have to own this particular problem, with weapons so easily available to our youth, and the violence-loving culture in which we raise them” (Jenkins 5). It is true that in America people are able to access weapons very easily such as guns, tasers, and knives. Video games such as Mortal Kombat, Farcry, and Gears of War have a great influence in violence involving weapons, combat, and gore. Not only is it video gaming but also music is to blame, Hip Hop and rap are the most listened genres in current society that involves singers like Snoop …show more content…
"That is until they foul up. Until they commit crimes. And the bigger the crime, the more eager we are to call them adults" (Lundstrom 5). It may have not occurred to some people that children can commit a crime due to outrage, depression, or influence. Children are capable of many crimes that can be pushed or influenced upon due to social life, family, or too exposed with how the world. Some crimes are on accident and some on purpose. Lundstroms quote states the mass of the crime the more they should be tried as adults. What if it was on accident? What if someone peer pressured the child to commit the crime? What if the child was so frustrated and so furious with his father abusing him and his mother and he tried to protect the person who birthed him? Some juveniles are also pushed because of poverty. So if a child has killed someone who was attacking him should he be tried as an adult? Many of the crimes committed by teens and children were from something that has grown to them, not from the overall idea of gore and fun. Most kids do not even know where their organs are placed. Lundstrom agrees later on and agrees with Thompson, "They are not adults" (Lundstrom 15). As much as how bad the crime is or how heinous it is, they are not adults, juveniles have a better chance at redemption than adults for the adult brain is developed it cannot be