Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults Steinberg Analysis

Many adults believe that these juveniles are just sweet innocent adolescents, and their sentences should not be as harsh as an adult. Juveniles like Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier are examples of minors that were tried as an adult. These two individuals voluntarily stabbed their friend an agonizing 19 times. Luckily the victim survived the attacks but now has to live with the horrors of the attack on a daily basis. Had Morgan and Anissa been sentenced in juvenile courts, the victim wouldn't get the justice deserved, and the attackers wouldn't be held fully liable for their actions. On the other, some adults, believe that juveniles shouldn’t be given harsh adult sentences because they do not have the judgment and intellect to recognize right from wrong. It has been a proven fact that individuals between the ages of 12 and 18 have a higher tested IQ than the average American Adult, and this shows that adolescents are more knowledgeable then they are said to be. Juveniles across America are now living with the lifestyle of adult sentences for their crimes because they are being held accountable for their actions, it brings justice to their victims, and because they are expected to have a higher moral

When people commit crimes, there should be disciplined no matter what. Juveniles need to learn that their behaviors have consequences. Why should kids be given any less of a punishment for committing the same crime? According to one author, “Taking a life is murder regardless of the age of the offender, and the penalties to be imposed must not discriminate. After all, the victim’s life will never be returned, and the family will permanently lose their loved one” (“7 Top Pros and Cons of Juveniles Being Tried As Adults”). When teen felons choose to act without thinking, they are putting other people’s lives at risk. They need to be charged as adults because the victims of the crimes will not be given the justice they deserve when they have to worry about that criminal harming them again. Although some people think that sending a juvenile through adult court gives them no hope, they should have given this a little thought before committing the crime. Teens need to think about the consequences and how their actions affect others before they act. When choosing between putting a violent adolescent in prison and taking the chance of letting them commit that crime again, it is most suitable to let the teen be tried as an adult and to place them in prison. Similarly, trying teens as adults will hold them accountable for their actions which will reduce the crime

Juveniles should be tried as adults due to being aware of their crimes and having an intention to kill, however, brain development and maturity can play a role into the reason why teens kill. With being tried as an adult juveniles should be granted the opportunity of freedom pending on their rehabilitation status and if requirements are not met, convicts will have to complete the remainder of their sentence.

In our society, crimes are being committed not only by adults but by juveniles as well. By law as soon as a person turns 18 they are considered to be an adult. So what if an adult and a juvenile were to commit the same crime yet were sentenced differently simply based on the fact that one is a child and one is an adult? Juveniles are committing violent crimes just as adults and should be given the equal treatment and sentencing as adults receive. Juveniles aren’t completely ignorant as everyone seems to think. In fact they are quite clever. If juveniles are capable of committing heinous crimes who knows what else they are capable of. Yet not all crimes juveniles execute aren’t evil crimes and should not be treated in such a harsh way. Juveniles should be tried as

They know that by committing an “adult crime” should be punished with adult consequences. As an early age they know that they their actions can lead to a consequence and they need comprehend that they cannot get away with their crime. In the article “Babies Know What’s Fair” by Association for Psychological Science, they have research that babies know the difference of what is fair or unfair- in other words what is right and wrong. At the age of 19-21 months infants start recognizing what is generally fair and can apply to many different situations, according to Psychology graduate Stephanie Sloane (Association for Psychological Science). This can infer that at a young age infants know that when something is wrong or correct in a situation, so when they are older they know that when making a plan to hurt someone is wrong and they know the consequence of their actions. Furthermore, we do not just know when something is wrong or right when we are infants, but also as teens. Teens are impulsive, but they know that their actions can lead to many consequences. In The Atlantic article “Dopamine and Teenage Logic” it further explains what occurs in a teen’s brain. They reveal that with my studies juveniles are aware of the risks of their actions/ behaviors. As teens we do not looking at the negative outcomes, but the emphasize the positive outcomes (Siegel 3). As teens we do know the full risk of our

Dr. David Fassler, a psychiatry professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, stated that when adolescents are confronted by stressful or emotional decisions, it is more likely for them to act impulsively on instinct, without fully recognizing and understanding the consequences that their actions would bring (Ritter, 2007). Thus, adolescents on average when compared to adults act more impulsively and aggressively, and are also highly volatile to stress. This shows that they are unable to think ahead during extreme circumstances, and only see what is in front of them. It should be recognized that an adolescent is unable to think like an adult because their brains have not fully developed yet. The adolescent years, between the ages of 11 to 19, are a transitional period for teenagers. Not only are they learning psychologically and mentally, their brains are still in a developmental phase. In fact, studies have shown that a teenager’s brain does not equal an adult’s fully matured brain until their early 20s. “I was impulsive. I wouldn’t think about the consequences,” said Luke R., a Florida youth serving a prison sentence for robbery (Guy, 2015). Because of this, juvenile rehabilitation centres are designed to assist in developing any juveniles that are prosecuted in the juvenile court. These

Some teens commit crimes and don't have a really good excuse on why they do it. In the article “On Punishment and Teen Killers” by Jennifer Jenkins she explains how the teenager that killed her sister, husband and her unborn child excuse of killing them was that he just wanted to “see what it would feel like to shoot someone”, which is no good excuse for what he did to this family. Another example from Jennifer's Jenkins article she states how “undeveloped brain” has nothing to do with teens committing these crimes. If an “undeveloped brain” was the case then teens would kill at roughly the same rates all over the world, which is not. Some of these teens think they can get away with some of these crimes which leads to commit more. In Jennifer's article she explains one of her case with a serial killer. His parents will fix everything whenever he got in trouble. After series of other

Juveniles should be tried as an adult because they are in a state of mind, meaning they know right from wrong even if they’re not fully developed age wise. Thompson states, “Even though normal teens are experiencing a wildfire of tissue loss in their brain, that does not remove the accountability”.

Those in favor of trying juveniles as adults believe that it deters and minimizes crimes being committing by all minors. That trying juveniles as adults will bring the greatest good to the most amount of people. According to an article posted by the American Bar Association by Nicole Scialabba, “the increase in laws that allow more juveniles to be prosecuted in adult court rather than juvenile court was intended to serve as a deterrent for rising youth violent crime.” It is no secret that youth commit crimes in our society. In 2014, law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made an estimated 1 million arrests of persons under age 18 (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention). It is debated that juveniles are committing more serious and violent crimes because the youth think they can get off easy and take advantage of the system put in place. Those in favor of youth offenders being tried as adults believe that as juveniles are punished to the full extent of the law, future youth offender will think twice before committing a criminal act. In support of this, seventy-five percent of the transferred juveniles interviewed by Redding and Fuller (2004) felt that their experiences in the adult criminal justice system had taught them the serious consequences of committing crimes. As one juvenile explained, “[Being tried as an adult] showed me it’s not a game anymore. Before, I thought that since I’m a juvenile I could do just about anything and just get 6 months if I got

One of the many reasons that minors should not be tried as adults is because their brains are not fully developed, so they cannot make good decisions until they are older, far into their twenties. In the article, “Kids Should Never Be Tried As Adults” written by Robert Schwartz, it says, “Recent brain imaging technology reinforces …the teenage brain is undergoing dramatic changes during adolescence in ways that affect teen’s ability to

People argue that some juveniles are “too young and they don’t understand” but either way, they still broke the law and should be fairly punished. A fact stating “There are approximately 6,000 juveniles in adult jails and prisons in the United States” shows that people who have broken the law with felonies have been confined by law, no matter the age. People need to learn before they act in a similar manner, again. A similar case is a boy named Craig Price from Rhode Island who had committed multiple felonies, such as four murders and was charged as a minor, meaning he was arrested around age 16 and would get out and have his criminal record sealed at age 21. Because of this, a law was changed so that juveniles could be tried as adults with serious crimes.

I do not think that juveniles should be tried as adults. I believe that juveniles should have another chance after they serve their time. There are certain jurisdictions that will try juveniles as adults. The offense committed by the juvenile determines the punishment. If a juvenile committee an adult crime, then he or she can be tried as an adult. An adult crime can be murder, armed robbery, and the position of drugs. Other offenses like being out past curfew or minor infraction would be charged as a juvenile crime.

In the article, “Should Children Be Tried as Adults,” Nathaniel Abraham was provided as an example of a thirteen year old boy who was convicted as an adult. He was connected to almost two dozen crimes that included arson, beating two teenagers with metal pipes, snatching a woman’s purse at gunpoint, and murder at the age of eleven. If he went to juvenile court, he would have only been confined in a juvenile detention facility for a short period of time or went to counseling. While counseling would be beneficial to him, he also had to be held responsible for what he did. Imagine the family of the boy he murdered. Nathaniel shot the boy and imagine the horror and sadness on the faces of the boy’s family when they learned that he would no longer be with them, that their beloved brother, son, or grandson who had yet to live his life was dead. In another article on juvenile justice, it was written, “If offenders believed juvenile courts wouldn’t hold them fully responsible for their crimes, they would be likely to commit serious crimes.” Kids needs to know there are consequences. If they only received a warning or a lighter sentence, they would not care and would be a threat to others. In order to prevent more serious crimes from happening, the youthful criminals need to be stopped early on and learn that adult courts would hold them fully responsible for their

Many people think kids that commit massive crimes deserve to be put in a adult jail house but don’t realize that they are young immature human beings. There has been many cases of kids being tried as adults and being sentence to life in prison. We can’t continue to put these young kids in adult prison, they should be put in juvenile hails where they belong. Kids are being shown no mercy when it comes to being put in jails. Kids aren’t allowed to do certain things because you need to be an adult, so the same rules should be applied we it comes to give children jail time. That’s why I am against trying kids as adults.

In my opinion, I think that juveniles should be prosecuted as adults depending on the type of criminal offense that he or she commits. If a juvenile commit petty crimes such as petty theft, disorderly conduct, vandalism, etc. then I think that they should be tried in juvenile court. However, if a juvenile commit any of the seven deadly sin in criminal justice then they should be prosecuted as an adult. The seven deadly sin include: Murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated battery, aggravated sodomy, and aggravated child molestation. These are very serious offense and if a juvenile commits one of these offenses and are between the ages of 13 to 15 they should be prosecuted as an adult. The reason I think juveniles should be punished