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Does the Crime Fit the Age?
Juveniles should be treated differently than adults by the criminal justice system for a variety of reasons. First, children are generally considered unable to make sound decisions and realize the consequences of their actions. Children cannot make all the decisions for themselves, which is confirmed by law. If children are treated as adults by the criminal justice system, it would be inconsistent with law. Second, children are weak, both mentally and physically. If they are treated as adults, they are to be incarcerated with adults. Children cannot mentally handle serving a sentence with adults. Such practice can lead to mental illnesses, rape, physical assaults, and an increased chance of adopting new crimes. Finally, children often commit crimes out of ignorance or peer pressure. If juveniles are trialed as adults, they are not likely to recover, which means that their lives will be ruined because of society’s inability to protect them.
A recent case in Pennsylvania demonstrates why children cannot be treated as adults. Thirteen-year-old Brayden Wright is charged with murder for killing his nine-year-old brother for a simple fact that the younger brother refused to play a game with Brayden (Metrick, 2020). This demonstrates that children do not realize the consequences of their actions. However, according to Pennsylvania laws, there is a high chance that the offender will be treated as an adult by the criminal justice system. If Wright is charged with first-degree murder, he will automatically y go to jail for life. Thus, a child’s life will be over for no reason.
Juvenile Delinquency: Perception versus Reality
While juvenile delinquency is becoming less frequent, people seem to become more worried about violent adolescents. Current news is full of stories about mindless murders committed by children and school shootings. According to Keneally (2019), there have been at least 11 deadly shootings at schools associated with more than 100 victims in total. Such reports make people afraid of teenagers’ inability to control their anger. However, the total number of violent crimes decreased from 1,108 thousand in 1993 to 215 thousand in 2017, which is an 80% decrease in violent crime prevalence (Statista, 2019). However, even with general downward trends, juvenile delinquency is a significant social issue that needs to be addressed.
Juvenile violence persists because its root causes exist in society. According to the United Nations (UN, 2003), juvenile delinquency is positively correlated with urbanization, economic instability, media violence propaganda, exclusion, peer pressure, family problems, and the availability of firearms. While UN (2003) reports that criminal delinquency becomes less prevalent around the world, the US remains one of the countries with an increased prevalence of violent crimes committed by adolescents. According to Junger-Tas (2012), the US has the third largest prevalence of juvenile violence in the world of Ireland and Aruba. Thus, even though the current rates of juvenile delinquency are falling, the public remains concerned with the problem.
Changing Views of Delinquency
The views on juvenile delinquency varied at different periods of US history. In the progressive era of the early 1900s, the US justice system began to realize responsibility for juvenile offenders to help recover (Impact Law, n.d.). In 1974, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act finally achieved complete separation of adults from juvenile offenders (Impact Law, n.d.). However, in the 1990s, Americans faced growing concern over highly publicized and violent juvenile crime. In order to fight crime, criminal law began to treat children and adolescents as adult offenders in cases of serious offenses. Currently, the global community starts to push for revising these changes to help children and adolescents reintegrate with society even after committing serious crimes.
The changes in society can be illustrated by the events in Pennsylvania. Recently, thirteen-year-old Brayden Wright is charged with murder for killing his nine-year-old brother for a simple fact that the younger brother refused to play a game with Brayden (Metrick, 2020). According to Pennsylvania laws, children at the age of 10 and above can be trialed as adults for first- and second-degree murders (Metrick, 2020). However, the defenders are pushing towards moving the case to the juvenile court (Metrick, 2020). In 2017, a fifteen-year-old shooter in Pennsylvania was trialed in the juvenile court (Metrick, 2020). These two cases demonstrate that the attitude of the criminal justice system to juvenile delinquency is changing.
Reference
Metrick, B. (2020). A 13-year-old is charged as an adult for killing his brother: What does the court system have in store for him?PennLive Patriot News. Web.
Junger-Tas, J. (2012). Delinquent Behaviour in 30 Countries. The Many Faces of Youth Crime, 69-93.
Keneally, M. (2019). The 11 mass deadly school shootings that happened since Columbine. ABC News. Web.
Statista. (2019). Number of serious violent crimes committed by youth aged between 12 and 17 years in the U.S. from 1980 to 2017. Web.
United Nations. (2003).Juvenile delinquency. UN. Web.
Impact Law. (n.d.). History of the juvenile justice system. Web.
Young, S., Greer, B., & Church, R. (2017). Juvenile delinquency, welfare, justice and therapeutic interventions: a global perspective. Bjpsych Bulletin, 41(1), 21-29.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
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