Should Teenagers Be Tried as Adults
Opinions differ. Some people argue that teenagers don’t know what they are doing when they commit a crime and are still too young to comprehend what is right and wrong. I totally disagree. I am old enough to know that committing a crime is wrong and that if I commit one, I will be punished. Anyone who says teens can’t tell right from wrong is either too old to remember what being a teenager is like or they are a teenager who has committed a crime and don’t want to be tried as an adult.
In either case, they are wrong. All teens know that killing is wrong, yet they do it anyway and get away with a light sentence because of their age. Even if a teen didn’t know it was wrong, it doesn’t mean it’s right. They should still be punished. If they aren’t, they will think that crimes are okay and continue to commit them. Teens today don’t fear the law because they don’t think they will get caught. And if they do, they know they have a good chance of getting off because they are tried as teens and not adults.
We have to get tougher on crime. There should be a law that everyone over eleven years old will be tried as adults. That way more teens would be discouraged from committing crimes. They would know that murder would get them a very long sentence instead of staying in juvenile hall until they are eighteen. If we want to cut down on teen crime, we have to have tougher laws. I don’t think there is any excuse for committing a crime. I think it depends on the crimes stances. hat if a kid kills their physically abusive parents in those cases there should be special treatment. However crimes of passion and maybe drugs should they should be tried as adults. Since we’re talking about murder cases, I believe that teens should be tried as adults. If not, they are most likely going to repeat the crime knowing that they won’t get in any serious trouble. For example, I know people who have stolen things of mine because they figured they were only 10 and there was no one who would really punish them if they were caught.
Now, at 13 they are still stealing because they think it’s okay. Now if you’re a teenager, you know that murder is wrong (unless it’s in self-defense) so there is no excuse for doing so. A rising number of juveniles under the age of 18 are not only being charged for crimes as adults, but are serving in adult jails and even serving life sentences. Every state has some mechanism in place that allows juveniles charged with certain crimes to be tried in criminal court as adults.
Thousands of children annually are even being “automatically” transferred to adult criminal court. Much of the change in the laws over the past few decades making it easier to try youths as adults has been in part due to the increase in juvenile crime and public outrage over particularly violent crimes and repeat juvenile offenders. The most common increases in juvenile crime have been noted with respect to gang violence, school shootings, increases in drugs in youth neighborhoods, and even increases in bullying among peers.
