Teenagers Should Be Punished For Their Crimes Essay

Juvenile Justice Issues In today’s society the youth generation seems to be facing some problems that there is no solution for. Juveniles are participating in many wrongdoing activities that they are not being held accountable for. I see many gray areas when it comes to the juveniles justice system and I strongly believe there should be changes made in order to help these juveniles be deterred from such behavior so they do not continue down a path that can affect the rest of their lives.

A Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a study in 40 of the nation’s largest urban communities. “It was found that an estimated 7,100 juvenile defendants were charged with felonies in adult criminal court in 1998. Of these 40 county criminal courts, juveniles were 64% more likely than adults to be charged with a violent felony. These juvenile defendants were generally treated as serious offenders, as 52% did not receive pretrial release, 63% were convicted of a felony, and 43% of those convicted received a prison sentence. States have expanded the mechanisms by which juveniles can be charged in criminal courts.

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).

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..

Juvenile crimes are essentially crimes committed by adolescents. Some examples of juvenile crimes include homicides, robberies, and drug use. While these crimes are basically the same crimes that adults commit, the difference is that they are committed by adolescents and the motivation behind these crimes. The motives for which a crime may have been committed are stronger in adolescents such as stress, jealousy, impulse, or simply an attempt to seek attention. These things are important factors in differentiation between juvenile and adult crimes.

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.

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.

There are a lot of juveniles who are committing violent crimes in today's society. Most times you see a juvenile commit a violent crime and an adult turns around and does the same thing. Due to one's age, their consequences are different and it's a good thing because some minors can’t survive in prison. But when one thinks about it juveniles are only doing what they see the adults doing. Juveniles should only be charged as an adult for violent crimes such as rape, murder, and armed robbery.

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.

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.

Some people believe that we should stop putting teens in adult prison; they believe we should be lenient with them. If teenagers can commit murder like adults, stop treating them like they don’t know any better and serve them with the time they deserve. Some people say morals are learned; others say it’s inherited. Regardless a murder is a murder, you can’t force anybody to kill. A murder is always a murder no matter of age, so if you murder at any age, you should be tried as an adult and possibly face

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.

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

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.

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.