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Trying Young Violent Juveniles as Adults (1) In order for us to be able to figure out pros and cons of trying young juveniles as adults, we would have to define the essence of this issue. There is absolutely no doubt that juveniles are capable of committing crimes. At the same time, many juvenile offenders do not consciously realize the consequences of their actions, which give us a valid reason to suggest that the standard prosecution procedures might not be applicable to them. There are numerous cases of children committing gruesome crimes, such as shooting their parents, without feeling any remorse. At the same time, these children often express infantile fears and anxieties, such as being afraid of darkness.
This is because juveniles do not posses social skills, which would help them to prevent their ego from solemnly directing their act. Young person strives to satisfy his desires at any cost, without realizing that breaking laws, on his part, often means that he will never be able to become a successful individual in the future. The problem is that Western jurisprudence relies upon logic, when it comes to combating crime. It strives to understand criminals motives. At the same time, this approach can never be effective, while being applied to juveniles. If young person commits a homicide in especially brutal matter, the chances are that he will be tried as an adult, because of public opinion.
At the same time, if he steals something in the store, for the first time, he will be most likely given probation, if sentenced. The fact that he is juvenile is going to be a major factor that might convince judges to be lenient towards him. Therefore, we conclude that we cannot talk about pros and cons of trying juveniles as adults out of social context. Society can only remain lenient towards juvenile offenders, for as long as its own integrity is not being threatened by it. (2) In her article States Rethink Trying Juveniles as Adults, Alexandra Mark points out to the fact that there is a clear tendency in more and more states to try juvenile offenders as adults: Currently, 40 states have laws that allow juvenile offenders to be tried and sentenced as adults. In a few, including Connecticut, anyone over 15 is automatically treated as an adult, no matter what the offense.
In other states, like Illinois, judges can decide whether to try juveniles as adults, although some violent offenses are automatically tried as adult crimes (Mark). Apparently, there is a good reason for judges to do so. In recent years, the crimes committed by the children in America, are becoming especially violent. Many parents do their utmost not to allow their children to attend public schools, because these schools are gradually turning into the places where kids learn about crime more than they do about math or literature. There is a clear link between demographic trends in American society and the rate of crime among juveniles. The reason why many judges insist on accused juveniles to be tried as adults is that they feel that the essence of committed crime is clearly pathological.
A kid, who shoots his parents in cold blood, because they did not buy him a toy, is irreversibly lost to society. In her article Why Kids Kill Parents Kathleen Heide expresses her concern over the fact that percentage of murders, committed by juveniles in this country, has risen dramatically in recent years: While tabloid television has brought us closer to the everyday horrors of our society, nothing still shocks as much as a child killing a parent or step-parent. Such an act, though thought uncommon, is almost a daily event in the United States. Between 1977 and 1986, more than 300 parents were killed each year by their own children (Heide) When it comes to dealing with irrational murders, committed by children, it becomes obvious to everyone that society's protection becomes a priority.
Judges simply strive to keep such juveniles behind bars for as long as possible, because there is almost a definite guarantee that they will strike again, after being released. Therefore, we can say that the foremost advantage of trying juveniles as adults is that it protects society as whole. Bruce Fein is right when in his article: Most-Violent Teenagers Must be Tried as Adults he says: As Socrates taught, the wise man knows what he doesn't know. Thus, extrapolating from the Great Society and countless other glaring monumental failures to reduce juvenile crime by flapping at its root causes, wisdom would teach the imperative of unforgiving incarceration as a means of community self-defense. Imprisoned youths, even if unreformed, are not creating corpses or mayhem (Fein). Our Judicial system is based on the belief that the sentenced person needs to be given a second chance, once he had paid his debt to society.
In its turn, this idea is based on the assumption that every crime is being motivated by social factors alone. However, the recent discoveries in the field of genetics allow us to suggest that at least 50 % of all crimes are being genetically predetermined. Among juvenile offenders, this percentage is even bigger. As practice shows, children affected by racial mixing are more likely to commit violent crimes. Dog breeders are aware of the fact that the most aggressive pedigrees of dogs, such as pit-bull, were artificially designed by the mean of intensive crossbreeding. The same applies to people.
When pit-bull bites an innocent bystander, he is most likely to be put asleep, even though that he acted spontaneously, without having contemplated his crime. Trying an aggressive juvenile as adult is nothing but the act of social protection. This is why, majority of people in U. S. support legislations that are meant to enable judges to try juvenile offenders as adults. (3) In his article Give Juveniles a Second Chance, Philip Gan suggests that it is inhumane to try juveniles as adults, even when they commit most heinous crimes: Even though the child has committed a heinous crime, the said child still has every right to be given the chance to redeem himself, and be given the chance to pick up the pieces of his life rather than be locked away in a prison, in the company of the worst possible criminals on earth (Gan). This approach is typical among Liberals, who are known to always feel more sympathy towards the criminal then towards the victim.
However, they do have a point that there is no reason to break kids life, for as long as his crime can be explained by accidental factors and does not involve violence. Unfortunately, this does not happen very often. For many young people, committing a premeditated crime is only the way to strengthen their reputation within ethnic group, to which they belong. For example, Black kid will never be respected by his friends if he does not like gangsta rap music, which glorifies crime and violence. The proponents of adopting more lenient attitude, when it comes to dealing with juvenile offenders, also suggest that putting children in prisons, which often function as schools for crime, increases the likelihood of them becoming adult criminals. However, they fail to understand that it is public schools that often serve as schools of crime, as it was being mentioned earlier.
In her book Tackling the Crime of School Design, Rena Upitis leaves no doubt about the fact that American public schools are gradually losing their essence as places of education: Outside the Grade 1 classroom I came across a decorated bulletin board with a banner in place, awaiting the art and stories of the young students. The title on the banner? Why I Will Not Bring Guns And Knives To School. Two days later, the board was filled with childrens work.
The drawings of guns aimed at teachers heads were explicit. The two sentence stories were chilling. Stories like: This boy, he was bad. When the teacher came inside the classroom, he killed the teacher.
I was dumbfounded by everything in that display: by the content provided by six-year-olds; by the necessity of having such a unit for children so young; and by the detailed depictions of handguns and machine guns, knives and switchblades (Upitis). This is why; those juveniles, who commit crimes, have already become hardened criminals, even before they are being sentenced. There is only one valid argument against trying juveniles as adults. It points out to the fact that sending children to adult jails will not solve a problem. The best way of combating crime is preventing it from happening in the first place. However, the current crime prevention programs that are meant to reduce crime rate among juveniles are based on wrong principle, this is why they rarely become effective.
Kids are expected to use their sense of logic to realize that becoming involved in crime will not benefit them. This, of course, is a very naive approach. Juveniles strive towards instant gratification and they do not care about social morals, for as long as they know that they have a good chance of getting away with crime. We cannot expect them to act in socially acceptable manner, because of their sense of social responsibility. In fact, they do not have one. However, their sense of danger is even more acute than the one that adults posses.
Therefore, the educational programs that are meant to decrease the juvenile crime rate, needs to be illustrative rather than moralistic. Kids need to know that if they commit a crime, they would have to face a harsh reality of being put in adult jail. Only this might prevent juvenile offenders from perpetrating crimes in the future, because they will be associating crime with pain. (4) In our country, just as everywhere else in the world, trying young criminals involves many moral issues. On one hand, society needs to protect itself, on the other young kids often do not understand the consequences of their actions, therefore, we need to be more lenient towards juvenile offenders.
It appears that it is simply impossible to accommodate these two different goals together. We can only talk about finding some kind of a balance between them. It appears that our judicial system has found the most sensible approach in dealing with juvenile crimes. Usually, judges only insist on trying juveniles in adult court, when their crimes involve murder. All the circumstances are being carefully considered, before judges come to a decision. At the same time, our judicial system gives young offenders chance to restore their reputation, for as long as judges think that the offender is sincere in his desire to redeem himself socially.
This is why juvenile criminal record is not permanent. When we talk about reducing the rate of crime among young people, it is important to understand that we will have to adopt a complex approach. In his monograph Solving the Juvenile Crime Crisis: a Prospectors Perspective, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom says: We need to ensure that juveniles are held accountable and responsible for their own actions. Without this accountability, our system of justice will fall apart. This accountability and responsibility must start at an early age. The most critical years of a childs life (the years in which he / she will develop either positive or antisocial behaviors) are ages one to ten, with the earlier years being the most important (Backstrom).
It is hard to disagree with the author. The young people in this country gain more and more special rights and privileges, while their sense of social responsibility is being undermined by Liberal brainwashing. Children at school are being taught that the most important thing in this life is money. They are being encouraged to pursue the careers that allow them to make the most money with the least effort applied. It is quite explainable, therefore, why many kids choose to become a drug dealers. Such situation is intolerable.
Thus, in order for us to find an effective way of how to deal with juvenile crime, we would have to bring social policies in this country back to sanity. It is crucial for the young people to be instilled with the sense of belonging. Before they are being taught how to celebrate diversity, they will need to be taught how to appreciate the country where they live. It is only when our government adopts a comprehensive problem of how to fight crime that we will be able to expect criminal situation in this country starting to improve for better. Practice, shows that 60 % of juveniles, who went through penitentiary system, continue to commit crimes later in their lives. This points out to the fact that the correctional influence of jail is minimal.
It is often better to just let the kid go, after he was being caught shoplifting, because the chances are that he does not belong to criminal environment of jail. However, when juvenile cuts the throats of his parents, while they are asleep, there is a no doubt that he belongs to the jail or even to an electric chair and all sentimentalism must end at this point. Bibliography: Backstrom, James Solving the Juvenile Crime Crisis: a Prospectors Perspective. 1996. Dakota Law Centre. 22 Jul. 2007.
web Heide, Kathleen Why Kids Kill Parents. 2004. Psychology Today. 22 Jul. 2007. web Fein, Bruce Most-Violent Teenagers Must be Tried as Adults. 1993. Find Articles. Com. 22 Jul. 2007. web Mark, Alexandra States Rethink Trying Juveniles as Adults. 22 Mar. 2007.
The Christian Science Monitor. 22 Jul. 2007. web Gan, Philippe Give Juveniles a Second Chance. 15 Jul. 2007. The Star Online. 22 Jul. 2007. web Upitis, Rena Tackling the Crime of School Design. New York: Penguin Press. 2004.
Outline: Introduction Pros Cons Conclusion
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Research essay sample on Trying Young Violent Juveniles As Adults
