Juveniles Tried as Adults

Juveniles Tried As Adults

Imagine being the principal of a high school, one day a student comes to school with a gun and commits mass murder. The student goes to court and is tried as a juvenile then is let back to his/her home and comes to school the next day. Should this teenager have been let back into the public? Two out of ten juveniles commit a serious crime each year. Juveniles should be tried as adults because kids know what they are doing, they should have to accept the consequences, and when it is acknowledged it becomes a bigger problem.

Children today are very smart for some of their young ages. This means that the child brain has developed to higher standard over the years. Kids today know much more than they would have back in the 1950’s. “There was this term coined called the ‘super predator’. There was this idea that kids were somehow different and they were going to commit more crimes and we needed to respond differently.” (Carey, Naoka) This term the ‘super predator’ is saying that kids have learned more than what we thought which basically helps them to do bigger and better things whether these things are good or bad. Take in to perspective Austin Sigg, Austin who lives in Colorado kidnapped, robbed, sexually assaulted, and killed young Jessica Ridgeway when he was only 17. Jessica being only 10 at the time will hopefully get revenge on her alleged killer in which he might face life in prison or 40 years with parole. Austin was old enough to know exactly what he was doing at the time. “The teenage brain is like a car with a good accelerator but a weak brake.” (Steinburg, Laurence) This quote being a good representation of Austin, he had a thought and proceeded to go through with it but he could not stop himself after he had started. No matter how young a child is the parents have taught them right from wrong.

All around the world hundreds of children commit serious crimes and get away with it. Why do adults get charged for accidents and not kids for what they do on purpose? Just imagine a child with a gun breaks into your house, kills your little brother and robs your house. When you come home you find your little brother dead and call the police. Would you want the child to get let off easy as a juvenile? The juvenile mind is extraordinary, more things are being thought and many things are better than we even expected them to be. Occasionally these ideas were wrong in every way possible but the mind believes that it is right, but the juvenile mind thinks of them as they are right. “In 2011, there were 202 arrests for Violent Crimes Index offenses for every 100,000 youth between 10-17 years of age.” (ojjdp.gov) The violent crimes index includes murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, and assault. All of these crimes, even for a child, are highly considered to be adult crimes. However when most juveniles commit these horrendous crimes those same children get tried as a juvenile. “But I do believe, however trite this may sound, that if you do an adult crime, you do adult time.” (Estudillo, Mary Onelia) No matter how wrong it may sound for a kid to get put on adult time, they deserved to be punished for what they did. Juveniles need to learn from their mistakes and the consequences for their wrong doing.

Nevertheless, children do not understand how to stop an idea once they have started doing it. Whenever something comes to mind, children just follow through with the idea or action without even thinking about the consequences first. Their brains have not gone through all of the stages it needs to go through before they can know exactly what is right and what is wrong. “Despite the horrific nature of Hribal’s alleged crimes, I believe that charging him as an adult is a perversion of our justice system and a dangerous sign that our legal system is itself losing sight of reality and truth.” (Ablow, Dr. Keith) Hribal may have committed mass murder and gave plenty of students and teachers injuries; he does not belong in a prison he belongs in a mental hospital. A lifetime in prison will not help Alex Hribal get any better, it will just keep him away from the help that he truly needs. That also goes for the other cases of juveniles committing serious crimes, those children and teenagers need professional help and by putting them in prison will not give them what they need. “Juveniles at any age can be charged as adults with such a serious crime, but much consideration goes into the decision to charge a juvenile as an adult.” (Mancuso) The judges need