Juvenile Under The Adult Justice System example essay topic

Nathaniel Abraham, at age thirteen, is on of the nations youngest first-degree murder defendants. When he committed his crime, at age eleven, he was to young to see rated R films but, was old enough to be tried in an, adult court, as someone who could (Mark P. 1). Juvenile offenders should not be tried as adults under the adult justice system. Societal problems are great influence in the way a child acts and thinks. Therefore, societal problems are a great contributing factor to the reasons why a child has for committing a crime. It is unfair to punish a child as an adult because children don't have the equal amount of maturity as an adult; this is why they have different rights than adults.

In many cases a child can, and should be reformed in order to be given another chance to a normal life, and so they may also realize the severity of their crimes. Punishing a child under the adult justice system in not only wrong but it is also unfair. There are some very important questions we need to ask ourselves. Where did and eleven-year-old get a gun?

How did he or she learn to shoot a gun? We forget that society is a great part of our lives, societal problems contribute greatly as to the reasons for why a child has for committing a crime. Many times we choose to only blame the child but like every other crime there is a reason behind it. Juvenile homicide has increased a great deal since 1984 through 1993. "Contributing factors include the proliferation of guns, increases in poverty and drug and alcohol abuse, and the saturation of violence in society, including television, movies and video games. A weakened family structure, which leads to child abuse and lack of supervision, is another factor" (Kaczor 6).

The neighborhoods, family, school, and friends are many influencing factors a child has to deal with on a day to day basis. "Criminologist Alfred Blum stein and other have argued, that the large sudden increase in gun killings was tied to the development of crack market in the inner city where fierce turf wars were waged and juveniles were actively recruited by the organizers of the markets" (Kids and Crime 6). This is just one example of how the neighborhood a child grows up in influences the way a child acts and thinks. It doesn't help a child that they live in a bad neighborhood but they also many times have a bad family structure, if any at all.

These children don't have anybody teaching them right from wrong, "They " re basically growing up without supervision, without a sense of values, without a sense of being disciplined", says Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at he University of South Florida in Tampa (Kaczor 6). .".. Diminished capacities to understand and process mistake and learn from experience, to engage in logical reasoning, to control impulses, and to understand the reaction of others... diminish their personal culpability". Atkins vs. Virginia Supreme Court decision (2002) that banned the execution of the mentally retarded. "As supported by recent research, this argument applies equally to offenders under eighteen years of age" (Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Juvenile Death Penalty 1). Not only are these children being influenced by a bad society, they also are not mature enough to fully realize what they did.

"People under eighteen can't pierce their bodies, or decide their own medical treatments, but it's perfectly okay to execute them" (Mark P. 2). Children are no given to same rights as an adult for the simple reason that they are not mature enough to take on the responsibilities that come with these rights. Then, why is society punishing them as if they were adults? "Pre-teens and teens today are expected to be fully aware of their actions and the responsibilities that go with them, yet they are not entrusted with many rights" (Mark P. 2). This isn't only hypocritical but extremely unfair.

Children have a lot less capacity for reasoning than that of adults because their brains have not fully developed. "There is evidence that teenagers (and even more so pre-teenagers... ) are less capable than adults of thinking through the consequences of their actions" (Kids and Crime 4). .".. scientists have discovered that adolescent brains are far less developed than previously believed" (Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Juvenile Death Penalty 1)". 'part of the brain that is helping organization, planning and strategizing is no done being built yet... It's sort of unfair to expect them to have adult levels of organizational skills or decision making before the brain is finished being built,' " explains Jay Gie dd, the lead researcher on the subject at the National Institute of Mental Health (Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Juvenile Death Penalty 2). Many kids today look a lot older than they really are, a thirteen year old looks like a nineteen year old but that doesn't make them nineteen years old. "Kids may look like adults, act like adults, even shoot like adults, but they think like children" (Kids and Crime 5). An eleven-year-old has no lived his life at all, and because of a mistake he did he probably wont ever have the chance to be able to finish living out the rest of his life.

"The juvenile justice system is different from the adult system in may ways, but the fundamental difference is that in the juvenile system, the primary purpose in no to punish, , but to protect and reform" (Mark P. 3). The child was not capable of fully understanding the consequences of his crime. Therefore the child should be reformed so he or she can understand the severity of their crime, and so later in life they " ll be less likely to commit another crime. By not giving these children a chance to be reformed and sending them straight to prison society is only creating even more dangerous criminals. .".. Studies showing that prison produces higher recidivism -- a term that means committing new crimes -- than reform school does."Columbia professor Fagan has found that it's not the length of a sentence that's important, but where it's served."In on of his studies, he learned that no matter how long the sentence given in criminal court, youths who committed similar crimes who were tried in juvenile court were less likely to re-offend".

Not only does trying a juvenile under the adult justice system not work but, it creates makes them worse. "Studies, including on by Fagan, have shown that teens in the adult system are much more likely to be victims of violence and sexual assaults by both inmates and guards."In addition, jails teach teens ho to be violent". There is no way that you can put a sixteen year old in the same cell as a forty-five year old experienced criminal and expect to get something good in result". 'The child is making his transition into adulthood under the care and supervision of adult felons. Is it surprising that he re-offends?' " Fagan asked (Stack 5-7). "If an eleven-year-old can be charged as an adult, as Nathaniel Abraham was in Michigan, and if twenty-year-olds are too young to buy beer, who is an adult these days and who isn't?" (Crary 1).

Societal and or family problems are one of the biggest contributing factors to juvenile crime. Not only can they many times not control their environment, they can also not control the fact that they do not have the same maturity as that of an adult. A child can, and should be given the chance to be reformed, in order to have a second chance at a normal life, and to realize what they have done. "Just as I have to wait until I'm eighteen to go to the voting booth, the court and its prosecutor should wait until offenders are eighteen before they are tried as adults. Work Cited Page American Bar Association Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Juvenile Death Penalty 2003 Winter 20 Mar. 2003 web Crary David Across the board, age raises ethical questions 2002 Nando Media 23 Mar. 2003 web Kaczor Bill Differing sentences for young killers renews push to change laws 23 Mar. 2003 23 Mar. 2003 web Kids and Crime Jan 2000 6 Mar. 2003 web P. Mark. The hypocrisies of.