Juvenile Justice The topic of whether or not juveniles who commit murder should be tried as adults and given life sentences has always been controversial. The country is divided in half when it comes to this topic. In the United States, about 2500 individuals are serving life sentences without parole for crimes they committed when they were adolescents. This only involves the states who do allow juveniles to serve life sentences. Sixteen states in the US banned life sentences without the possibility of parole for juveniles. Every state should do the same. If all states were to allow juveniles to be tried as adults and be given life sentences, this would have to involve every juvenile including the youngest of them all, for example
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Juveniles haven 't lived life as long as adults.Therefore they shouldn 't be treated as adults. Juveniles are ignorant. They still have years to learn and grow from their mistakes. Sentencing them to life won 't give juveniles that opportunity. Being a teenager myself, I find that I respond to situations out of impulse. I believe other teens are the same as well. Teens aren 't the type to contemplate about the decisions they make. Although this does not give juveniles an excuse to commit heinous crimes, juveniles should be given a second chance. Before convicting a juvenile as an adult and sentencing them to life in jail, one should consider the …show more content…
In Richard Dudley’s article, “ Impact of Child Abuse and Maltreatment on Delinquency, Arrest and Victimization”, Dudley explains how children who are maltreatment are more likely to commit crimes. The article states that being abused at home or neglected as a child increases the chance of arrest as a juvenile by 59 percent. The likelihood of a juvenile committing a crime is high. The juvenile doesn 't decide to be put in these situations. Some adolescents are more fortunate than others. Juveniles who are maltreated or abused at home have no way out. There is no parent or family member who can guide them through the right path. So the adolescent turns to committing a crime as harsh as murder to escape. Cheryl Seelhoff’s, "United States: 13-year-old Girl Shoots, Kills Abusive Father", can be used as an example to Dudley’s article. This article talks about a 13 year old Pennsylvania girl who shot her father because she was tired of getting physically and sexually abused by him. Dealing with this every day, the 13-year-old girl felt that she had no escape from her father. Later on authorities came to their house and discovered the house filthy, with no food in the fridge and beer bottles all over the floor. This is no environment for a child to live in. The only way this girl could have been safe is if her father was gone and in her mind killing him was
Juveniles haven 't lived life as long as adults.Therefore they shouldn 't be treated as adults. Juveniles are ignorant. They still have years to learn and grow from their mistakes. Sentencing them to life won 't give juveniles that opportunity. Being a teenager myself, I find that I respond to situations out of impulse. I believe other teens are the same as well. Teens aren 't the type to contemplate about the decisions they make. Although this does not give juveniles an excuse to commit heinous crimes, juveniles should be given a second chance. Before convicting a juvenile as an adult and sentencing them to life in jail, one should consider the …show more content…
In Richard Dudley’s article, “ Impact of Child Abuse and Maltreatment on Delinquency, Arrest and Victimization”, Dudley explains how children who are maltreatment are more likely to commit crimes. The article states that being abused at home or neglected as a child increases the chance of arrest as a juvenile by 59 percent. The likelihood of a juvenile committing a crime is high. The juvenile doesn 't decide to be put in these situations. Some adolescents are more fortunate than others. Juveniles who are maltreated or abused at home have no way out. There is no parent or family member who can guide them through the right path. So the adolescent turns to committing a crime as harsh as murder to escape. Cheryl Seelhoff’s, "United States: 13-year-old Girl Shoots, Kills Abusive Father", can be used as an example to Dudley’s article. This article talks about a 13 year old Pennsylvania girl who shot her father because she was tired of getting physically and sexually abused by him. Dealing with this every day, the 13-year-old girl felt that she had no escape from her father. Later on authorities came to their house and discovered the house filthy, with no food in the fridge and beer bottles all over the floor. This is no environment for a child to live in. The only way this girl could have been safe is if her father was gone and in her mind killing him was