Juveniles Or Adults Essay, Research Paper

Eric Dinger

English 2, sec 48

Ms.Brock

Proposal paper

2/27/01

Juvenile or Adult?

With the increasing large amount of crimes being committed by juvenile’s, official are trying to come up ways to prevent these crimes from ever happening. More and more teens are committing crimes because they know they can get away with because of their age, especially in gangs. We should understand that teens are getting smarter. Teens know how far they can go before they really get themselves into some trouble they can’t get out of. That’s when we start trying them juveniles as adults. Sometimes we also need to be reminded that we are deal with are young people who have yet to gain an understanding of the real world. But maybe since kids are maturing much faster these days, we should take that into consideration. In my opinion I think we need to do away with the juvenile court system. We should take cases of teens one at a time and try to understand if the know what they have done was wrong, if so they should be punished as adults. And in doing that we can eliminate punishing those who have done something they know is wrong and not realized what the consequences were.

These days’ teens are becoming much smarter than we think. We are underestimating their capabilities to get things done. There was an indecent that happened in mid September of 1997 involving a seventeen-year-old Samual Sheinbein. Samual Sheinbein is being charged with murder but the whole problem is that he is over in Israel were he is hiding out and claiming citizenship. He fled the country before anybody knew what happened. They now have figured out that Samual Sheinbein financed this whole thing got a hold of passports arranged for places to stay all by himself.(N.Zuckerbrod) This example really doesn’t show anything than what kids these days are capable of. Gangs are another example of how smart teens can be. Gangs are recruiting teens at an earlier age. Gangs know that the judicial system is a lot easier going on kids than adults so there having them do all the dirty work. But now since many states are passing laws that are allowing prosecutors to charge these teens as adults. This plan of theirs is back firing

The increasing amount of serious offenses being committed by teens is causing officials to come up with ways to put an end to it all. Proposition 21 is one of the ideas officials are putting to use. Proposition 21 allows prosecutors to charge teens who have committed serious felonies as adults. Another measure that is being taking is the Violent Predator Act of 1997. One part of the bill has been passed by the House of Representatives and is being discussed by the Senate. If this bill is passed it would mandate that anyone as young as 13 to be tried as an adult, and encourage states to hold there parents criminally responsible for their acts. They would also like to make juvenile records available, also for the first time house children in adult prisons(j.white). Some states are making so that if the crime is serious enough age will not matter, but others are going as young as 10 years old. In 36 states 17 year old are being excluded from the judicial system.

There are some serious problems with having the option of trying teens as adults. Studies are being done and are showing that teens are less likely to be convicted and are frequently acquitted, released or sent back to the youth courts when there case goes to an adult court. The rearrest rate is 26%lower when teens are sentenced in juvenile court rather than adult court.(aclu fact sheet) There are also some signs of discrimination against teens. Facts are showing that 82% of the teens being tried as adults are minorities. Also teens who are also able to obtain private attorneys rather than public defenders are likely to acquitted.(J.Meek)

Overall in my opinion we need to get rid of the juvenile criminal system. In some states they are beginning to take steps in that direction. I think it needs to all change or don’t change at all. There have been findings that the majority of teens being tried as adults are related to your color or race and that’s not right. Allowing a prosecutor decide who might have a bias opinion about certain races or ethnic backgrounds causes confusion and should not be allowed, even if we are taking steps to stop teen violence.

ACLU Fact Sheet on Juvenile Justice System, July 1996

*www.aclu.org/library.fctsht.html*

Meek,James. Adult Court Easy on Juveniles, Study Says

26,Oct 2000 www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/10/26/

juveniles1026_01.html*

White,Jerry. Tens of thousands of Children tried as adults in US, 16,May 1998 www.wsws.org/news/1998/may1998/kids.m16.shtml

Zuckerbrod,Nancy. Samual Sheinbein, Sept. 1997

www.abcnews.com