ADULT SENTENCES FOR TEENAGE OFFENDERS

Adult Sentences for Teenage Offenders

Introduction

The children were described as our future, our greatest resource, and our hopes for a better future (Bishop 2000). For many Americans, though, children invoke fear. They represent violence, part of the community does not have enough self-control and devoid of ethics and morality, and the rejection of the family to instill traditional values - chief among which is the value of human life and respect for others.

Fear of crime, especially random violence by young Americans is one of the biggest problems facing the country. He serves as the motivation for countless people to change their lifestyles, take self-defense classes, installing home security systems, and carry guns for protection (Kurlychek 2004). In addition, the fear of crime influenced politicians and ordinary people to take the position that a conservative justice system that seeks to punish and deter, holds the most promise in reducing juvenile crime. Waiver of juveniles to criminal (i.e., adult) court and the introduction of criminal sanctions, according to conservative positions, are effective ways for society to express their outrage to the crime "out of control" youth and to calm his desire of revenge.

Others, however, argue that treating juveniles as adults is going too far. Although many of these juveniles are incarcerated for their crimes, which the law allows, they are often easy victims of homosexual rape and other forms of violence in the hands of hardened criminal adults.

Juveniles tried as adults

Every state in the U.S. has another court for minors, however, more and more juveniles tried as adults. New laws are constantly passed making it easier for juveniles to be sent to juvenile court. With such easy access to try juveniles as adults, the courts did not think of many reasons that they should not try them as adults. The process of trying juveniles in adult court to be illegal in all states, because minors have underdeveloped brains, the level of juvenile crime has decreased, they cannot survive in the harsh conditions in prison, and certainly do not have a proper development in correctional institutions for adults(D'Ambra Minn2005). As more and more juveniles tried as adults, juvenile court will be abolished, forever changing the judicial juvenile justice.

Clearly, the number of young people tried as adults in California alone is too high. Having that many young people in jail is outrageous. On the other hand, keeping the judicial system we have for minors turning them around. "For murder and negligence (not accidentally) killing, the number of people aged under 18 arrested fell from 1,224 in 1997 to 710 in 2006" (Yellen 2006).That is a 42% decline, indicating that the treatment of juveniles in correctional institutions is to improve them. With the numbers drop that much, it would not make sense to cancel the juvenile court at this time. Since fewer juveniles to commit crimes is not necessary to take such drastic measures. In addition, the idea that juveniles should be tried as adults proved false seeing ...