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Teenagers Should Be Punished For Their Crimes Essay

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Crime is defined as an act that violates the constitution such as theft, assault, drugs/alcohol offense, curfew violations, and murder. Despite being punishable by law, many people still commit these crimes including teenagers. Teenagers should be punished for their crimes because they have the capability of recognizing their responsibility as a good citizen in the society. They are old enough to know the consequences of every action they make. According to The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), teenagers are more likely to commit crimes compared to adults. Numbers of crimes were being recorded by the OJJDP that are typically committed by teenagers and in the year 2000, statistics show that 2,369,4000 juvenile …show more content…

One reason is their inexperience and youth. A lot of times being young and having a lack of experience can lead teenagers into dangerous and often criminal situations, such as joining gangs, taking or dealing drugs and drinking. A teen 's discretion isn 't as fully developed as that of an adult. Also, many teenagers lack positive role models in their lives. If a teenager is part of a family that is either setting a bad example (by engaging in criminal activity themselves) or entirely absent, they have no one to show them the correct path in life. Many teenagers simply aren 't aware of the consequences of crime. Teenagers also often don 't understand laws and law enforcement practices in their area. Peer pressure is also another reason why teens could fall into a life of crime. Peer pressure is stronger than many realize, and has led to fatal overdoses, unwanted pregnancies, car accidents, violent crime and dangerous accidents. Peer pressure is very prevalent in the teenage years, and drug use is one of its most frequent results. If a teenager witnesses his friends either selling or taking drugs, they may want to participate in that behavior as well, because they perceive it as "cool" and don 't want to be labelled an

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Many other teenagers have committed crimes. The most common are: theft/larceny, vandalism, alcohol offenses, etc. Depending on the severity of the crime committed by these youngsters they could be tried as an adult. If they are tried as an adult there has been cases where kids 16, and at the youngest recorded 14, years of age

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Some might agree that, “The juvenile justice system is failing to protect citizens from the surge in violent crimes committed by juveniles. What is needed is a system that protects society from violent juvenile offenders, and efficiently rehabilitates juveniles." (G Garcett) The threat of this harsher punishment will result in lowered juvenile crime rates. Juveniles should be convicted as adults for violent crimes because it is not fair for juveniles to commit big crimes and get away with it so easily.

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Throughout high school teenagers are going through many changes. These young people are trying to find themselves and seek out who they truly are. Along the road they encounter peer pressure from people utilizing illegal substances. Even though school systems educate young minds about the use and consequences of illegal drugs, they still take the chances. The predominant complication that these adolescents come across is that upon interacting with the police, they are unaware of how to manipulate the circumstance.

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In most instances the juveniles who are arrested for crimes are either at the wrong place at the wrong time or usually with a group of people who are doing the crimes. Many juveniles are forced into the criminal lifestyle from the area that they live in and around. Through these environments and areas of livings, most juveniles have learned and adopted to defy authority and

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The violent crime rate among juveniles has grown at twice the rate compared to adults in the last two decades (Levitt, 1998). This fact shows that juveniles are constantly being given a slap on the wrist for the crimes adults get sent away for and the violent crime rate would not be inclining at the rate it is if they were processed as adults. Juveniles being processed as adults would decrease the rate due to the deterrence effect. There has been a rise in juvenile arrest rates for violent crimes due to the change in law and policies for juveniles that are less harsh when compared to adults (National Research Council, 2001). Juveniles know that the punishment they will receive for a crime is not harsh which leads them to commit more violent crimes.

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In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that it is immoral to give juveniles life sentences, even if they commit a crime as serious as murder, because it is a cruel and unusual punishment. This has been an issue in America as teenagers are often treated as adults in court due to a belief that their crimes warrant a harsh punishment. Many believe that these kids should not be given such major sentences because they are still immature and do not have the self control that adults do. I agree that juveniles do not deserve life sentences because they put less thought and planning into these crimes and they often are less malicious than adults. The article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” explains that the teenagers lose brain tissue that is responsible for self control and impulses (Thompson 7).

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Why should teen felons get to spend their jail time in juvenile detention centers for committing the same crimes as adults? In today’s world, teens are increasingly committing violent crimes and being put in juvenile detention centers. Teens need to be tried as adults because it helps to bring justice to families of victims, and it also teaches the teens accountability. Charging teens as adults will also help reduce crime in the United States. Although many people feel that teens should not be given severe punishments because they are immature and innocent, they have not considered the problem teens are creating by committing these crimes..

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The criminal justice system was created in order to punish people who choose to break the law. Some people believe they are above the law and decided to do whatever they like regardless of the consequences. Children and adults are both responsible for the actions they commit. The criminal justice should tried children as adults for committing felonies because a crime is a crime regardless of the age of the individual. This can be fulfilled by punishing juvelives with the correct sentence, by seeing that they know their actions lead to consequence and they have the proper process for a teen to be tried as adult.

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In the early 1900s, juvenile justice began to emerge in America, and many questioned if those under the age of 18 should be faced with the same punishments someone over the age of 18 received for the same crime. Later in the 1990s, many people had developed a fear of teenagers due to a “super-predator” myth, that teenagers were relentless and sought out to cause harm to others. Thus, the government tried to crack down on these sixteen to seventeen “hardened” criminals. Compared to other first world countries, America is on par with everyone else in terms of juvenile justice. However, that does not necessarily mean that the system is still outdated.

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Juveniles should be convicted as adults for violent crimes because it is not fair for juveniles to commit big crimes and get away with it so easily. If they want to act like adults, they should be treated. 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.

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Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.

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Juvenile Delinquency is a phenomenon that affects communities worldwide according to media reports, both print and electronic, where worrying images of youths involved in behavior outside societal norm has been highlighted. This issue has been studied by researchers locally, regionally and internationally where results has shown that delinquency has been influenced by a number of factors such as age, gender, race, family circle, environment, socioeconomic status et cetera. This research paper attempts to examine Juvenile delinquency and the effects of social structure on form (III) three students attending secondary schools in Trinidad. A structural functionalist perspective will be used based on factors that influence delinquency such as Poverty, Ideology of hegemony, and discrimination.

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Weak family ties, single parent households, multiple transitions within a family, and poverty/financial stress are all potential influences for youths to join a gang (Howell & Egley, 2005). Family risk factors can also include parents refusing to give their children the proper education or lack of discipline at home (Howell & Egley, 2005). Family members that are in gangs can also influence their children to join a gang themselves (Herrenkohl et al. 2010; Lahey et al. 1999). Risk Factors Related to School. Thornberry et al.

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Teenagers are not perfect, and their irrational behavior can lead to poor decisions that could potentially be dangerous and unlawful. A debate has now occurred for many years that deals with the issue of sentencing teens that have committed serious crimes such as murder and robbery. Many people argue that if juveniles commit these crimes that their punishment should be equal to an adults punishment for serious crimes, but juveniles shouldn’t have to worry about their lives getting ruined. Most juveniles and teenagers do not have enough maturity to survive in the adult prison system, and recent brain development research shows us that teenagers brains are not even close to being finished developing. Therefore, teenagers and youth under the age of eighteen should

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Young adults may want to join gangs because of the money that they might earn through illegal processes. Their grades could start to drop and they could potentially have a difficult time finding jobs. Young teens could begin joining gangs at as young as ages 13 and 15 ("Violence"). Gang rivalries could also happen at schools. This could be a major problem for school systems.

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