Debates have been going on, on whether juvenile delinquents should be treated and sentenced like adult offenders. In days of the old, the common law was clear on the grounds under which a juvenile was culpable for prosecution (Cohen & Piquero, 2010). In the current set-up of the justice system, juvenile offenders are normally tried in a court of law reserved purposely for minors. The system operates under the assumption that, juvenile trial is different from that of adults, and the offenders enjoy certain level of protection under the law (Petitclerc, Gatti, Vitaro, Tremblay, 2013). Their punishment is mainly geared towards reform and development. The punishment becomes harsher whenever a juvenile is treated as an adult, but it only happens whenever the crime is deemed violent. However, the society continues to feel that, juvenile offenders should be treated and sentenced just as adult offenders, based on the reasons explored in this study.
Firstly, juvenile offenders should be treated and sentenced like adults considering that, a crime remains a crime, regardless of who committed it. Whenever a juvenile commits a crime, it has an impact on the victim, and it inflicts harm, suffering and injury (Cohen & Piquero, 2010). The family of the affected person is left to deal with the aftermath for the rest of their life, while the offender is slapped a lenient punishment. For that reason, it is only appropriate to let the juvenile offender face punishment, just as an adult offender.
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On other occasions, the juveniles should also be treated as adults to ensure that they do not continue being a threat to themselves and to other people. It would bring justice particularly for extreme crimes such as murder where the juvenile is found guilty of the offense and does not show any sign of any mental illness. Baruwa (2013) gives an example of a juvenile by the name Austin Reed Sigg who was charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of a ten-year-old girl by the name Jessica Ridgeway. From the perspective of the society, the crime was a serious one and if Sigg was released back into the society, it would pose a threat and he was therefore tried as an adult.
Some young people may also take advantage of the law and the juvenile system. With the notion that the young person will not be sent to jail, they may get themselves into some serious crimes and use the argument to themselves that they will be released after a short while (Young, Greer & Church, 2017). Such notions can be reduced when if they could be tried as adults and also face time in prison like the rest. With the context of going to prison after committing the crime, the juveniles may learn how to control their actions.
Even so, according to Schiraldi (2015), a research in psychology and neurobiology stated that the brain of young people is not fully formed until they are in their mid-20s. They are therefore bound to make silly mistakes that are influenced by their peers and think less of the future since they are emotionally charged. With such a context, sending a twelve-year-old girl to an adult prison would not be ethical. Such a young person should be sent to a facility where he or she can be reformed, a facility where the juvenile can feel they are being changed rather than being punished.
To conclude, the argument of whether the juveniles should go be tried as adults still stands with the complex factors that are to be considered. On one hand, they should be tried as adults to depending on the crimes they have committed. The aspect of age also comes in since they some juveniles may be too young to be tried as adults. On other hand, they could also be tried as adults to ensure the safety of the public since some of them pose a danger.
References
Baruwa, B. (2013). Should Juveniles Be Transferred To Adult Criminal Court In The Criminal Justice System? 2, 101-127.
Cohen, M. A., & Piquero, A. R. (2010). An outcome evaluation of the YouthBuild USA Offender Project. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice , 8 (4), 373-385. doi: 10.1177/1541204009349400
Petitclerc, A., Gatti, U., Vitaro, F., Tremblay, R.E. (2013). Effects of juvenile court exposure on crime in young adulthood. J Child Psychol Psychiatry ; 54: 291–7
Schiraldi, V. (2015). Raise the Minimum Age a Juvenile Can Be Tried as an Adult to 21 - NYTimes.com.
Young, S., Greer, B., & Church, R. (2017). Juvenile delinquency, welfare, justice and therapeutic interventions: a global perspective. BJPsych Bulletin, 41 (1), 21–29. http://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.115.052274
