Juvenile Offenders Should Be Tried As Adults

As some sort of feedback to the harshness of the criminal law system during the 1800s was the effort to keep young lawbreakers out of institutions. The traditional role of the Probation Officer, working primarily from the office and seeing the client on a limited basis, is now shifting to include more face-to-face contact in the youth’s own environment. Over the last century, juvenile probation has enhanced the lives of many delinquents by changing their mindsets and helping them change their lives for the better. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, children who committed crimes often were imprisoned with adults. Reformers, however, criticized this practice, and houses of refuge, later called reform schools, were

Juveniles in the justice system need an alternative to incarceration because incarceration has been proven to increase criminal activity instead of providing a rehabilitation system for the juveniles. Juveniles in New Orleans are being arrested at a high rate for non violent offenses. Most juveniles who commit non violent offenses are tried as adults in court (Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights). After juveniles are convicted they are subjected to incarceration which leads to trauma and an increase in criminal activity (Hasselle). Also, while the juveniles are in prison they lose essential educational opportunities , because of the lack of

There are many different statistics that show different percentages of juveniles being tried as adults. Many people would say that we should be protecting the children and not taking out vengeance on them and they are too young to take on such a weighty legal responsibility. If the child is old enough to commit the crime, then they should be punished for it. Several reasons explain why they should be tried like they will understand the

In “Juvenile Mediation Cuts Repeat Offenses”, associate Professor Donna Decker at the University of New Haven contends that if a juvenile faces the consequences of their actions, they are less likely to commit another crime. She stated that the juveniles did not realize that their actions could result in consequences thus making it much easier to commit crimes. In an effort to support this statement, Morris conducted a study on the juvenile offenders in Bridgeport. “She utilized the results from mediations conducted by the Dispute Settlement Center between 2005 and 2006” (Cuda, 2010). The program which started in the year 2005 allows juvenile offenders to get their case dropped, but they must face the consequences of their actions by engaging in conversation with the victim.

Hence, when recently convicted minors leave jail or prison, they perpetrate more felonies along with misdemeanors. This is a substantial reason for augmenting rates of juvenile convictions. With recent studies taken in 2014 and also 2015 showing that children who are sentenced as adults are up three times more likely to perpetrate a violent crime after setting off from a penal institution. Provided, some kids may not take part in any acts after leaving. All in all, this could be a reverberation of underage kids obtaining negligent role models during

In an age where juvenile crime has escalated from simple truancy to more serious crimes such as mass school shootings some would agree it is time to abolish juvenile courts or modify the system at the very least. Because of the seriousness of juvenile crime in this day and age, most states have already lowered the age limit for juvenile court jurisdiction from 17 years and are prosecuting more children as adults depending of the seriousness of the crime. Some criminal justice and child welfare scholars argue that younger children do not have the mental capability or experience to weigh the consequence of committing a crime and much less understand the implications of a criminal record in their future. Furthermore, they note that most juveniles grow out of criminal behavior as they mature out of the system and in

This would reduce by a huge volume the number of youths who end up in jail for committing offences, whether petty or serious crimes. Such reformed youth, after being accepted back into the society, will help in economic growth. Such legislation would also shift responsibility to the older generation to dictate moral and constitutional adherence to be followed by the younger generation. This is proven by a research carried out by the Society for Investigating the Causes of the Alarming Increase of Juvenile Delinquency that found that the causes of crime were firmly rooted in the low moral condition of parents and parental neglect (Arthur, 2010). A shift of responsibility to parents would consequently result to lesser criminal prosecutions as the society will have a sound environment in which young people are raised up

Juveniles being waived to the adult criminal justice system has been a widespread issue across the United States. More than half the states allow juveniles the age of 12 and older to be prosecuted as adults, along with 22 states that allow juveniles as young as 7 to be prosecuted as adults (Deitch, 2014). However, the juvenile justice system and the adult criminal justice system, was not designed to work with kids this age, regardless of the crime they committed. The juvenile justice system was created and designed to provide age appropriate interventions due to the fact that the teenage brain is still forming along with their character (Deitch, 2014). Kids can still be held accountable in juvenile court but the focus is on rehabilitation

It removes inmates from their roles as breadwinners, making their families poorer, and from their roles as spouses and parents. This latter effect became more important as the incarceration boom increasingly placed less serious offenders behind bars, the children of the prison generation (Hagan & Dinovitzer, 1999, p. 153). A growing number of children, probably more than 1.5 million, have a parent in prison at any one time, and probably more than 7 million children have had a parent in prison at some point during their childhood. These children are more likely to commit delinquency and to experience school related performance problems, depression and anxiety, low self-esteem and aggressiveness (Clear, 2007, p. 97). Although the exact reasons that parental imprisonment has these effects remain to be determined, a recent review concluded that the effects appear to be relatively strong, with multiple adverse outcomes (Murray & Farrington, 2008 p.186).

Children who are abused in their earlier years have a 59% higher chance of being arrested for a misdemeanor crime, and a 30% higher chance of being arrested for a violent crime as an adult, versus someone who had an non-abusive childhood. (Impact) Statistics like these are no longer shocking to the general population. Neglect is one of the most overlooked forms of abuse, but it is also the most prevalent. Many think that since it technically causes no physical damage like rape or assault, it’s not true abuse. Criminals prey on neglected children, ones who are looking for a place to belong, a place where they are given attention, even if it means putting themselves in danger.

Most people tend to critique adults and Juveniles differently and similar depending on the subject that is being discussed. What happens when they commit a crime should they be treated equally or should one be given a break because they are less experienced. In a case on June 25, 2012 the subject, whether a juvenile should receive a life sentence arose in the Supreme court. This Conflict leads me to believe that Juveniles should receive the life sentence they truly deserve not based on their age or their status of their mentality, but it should be based on the damage that they caused. Some people give sympathy to the juveniles who were raised in tough neighborhoods and argue that some teenagers grew up with crime around them, that they

Since youths are still developing, they have the potential to change. The Forbes article (2015), 4 Things to Understand about Youth, Mental Health & Juvenile Justice in the US, shows both the nature and the nurture that results in a juvenile’s behavior, thus, showing that more nurture, or better rehabilitation practices, can help alter the demeanor of a child ( ). Research in general, on deterrence-oriented-correction programmes and assessments of the effects of prison-term length has shown that punishment has little or no effect on recidivism, and that offenders who are sent to prison had higher recidivism rates than those placed on probation (Chu & Ogloff, 2012). In contrast to correctional sanctions, rehabilitation treatment aims at motivating, guiding and supporting constructive change within offenders in whatever characteristics and circumstances that give rise to their criminal behavior or undermine their prosocial behavior (Chu & Ogloff, 2012). In order to identify the reason for a juveniles actions and begin the treatment process, the first step is the screening process.

In conclusion several attempts had been made in attempts to reduce the number of juveniles serving time in adult correctional facilities however thus far efforts have failed. When it becomes brutally evident that the current plan is not working than its time to implement a different plan or revise the current ones. As of today juveniles are being incarcerated at nearly double the rate of juveniles back in 2010, thus emphasizing the need for change. There are multiple efforts that could be made in attempts to reform the current juvenile justice system. The current system does not consider the psychosocial issues surrounding juveniles prior to committing any crime.

Most will often wonder if there is actually a future in the juvenile justice system and if so what does it include? Today the juvenile system is known as a weak system that does not actually provide much help for juveniles. Although, this system is effective for a few juveniles, it does not work for them all. The juvenile justice system is the primary system that they use on juveniles who are caught committing crime. The system is put into place in hopes it will deter juveniles away from future crimes to keep their life on track.

One of the harshest ways a juvenile can be punished is by serving a term of life in prison. Most do not know a lot about the factors that help the court make this decision. In Carmichael’s article, he states that throughout the most recent decades, laws controlling transfer provisions, and sentencing legislation have made movement towards making sanctions for adolescent offenders more reformatory (2012). These approaches have led to an expanding number of juveniles being adjudicated in an adult criminal court and the youth’s that are sentenced are serving longer sentences than planned (602). In 2012, almost seven thousand inmates were serving life sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles (603).