Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults?

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At twenty four years of age, I joined the United States military which forced me to work with and observe people of different ages and races. I came in contact with many soldiers whose ages ranged from 16-18, and who were particularly known for their tremendous amount of misjudgment; not as a result of intent, but rather from being uninformed. In the military, a rule of thumb is to correct the problem at the lowest level, and prosecuting juveniles as adults are not the lowest level. It is a known fact that juveniles and adults share more differences than similarities; one of the main differences being in their level of maturity. Accordingly, each group has a different set of expectations, rights, and responsibilities which justifies the…show more content…
The justice system really cannot accurately define the age of adulthood. In a newspaper article from the Washington Post it states that “the age at which people are capable of recognizing the wrong in committing a crime cannot be decided for the nation as a whole. Each individual is raised differently; no two people will mature at the same rate”. Sadly, there are juveniles who are raised substandard living conditions that are exposed to adults which are living the life of a criminal. Parents are raising juveniles with a third grade level of education resulting in juveniles not really knowing what is just. The fact that the level of mental immaturity is so different in each juvenile proves that juveniles and adults are…show more content…
Juveniles are learning to become adults which mean they are going to make mistakes, but they need someone to demonstrate the correct way. There have been numerous studies in reference to the juvenile aging out process. The process basically means the older juveniles gets the less likely he or she will commit a delinquent act. Now, if the justice system came to a verdict that a 15 year old boy was guilty of first degree murder and sentences him to life in prison without the possibly of parole. The justice system basically is saying to the general public that the 15 year old boy mindset will never be mentally mature enough to be taken into consideration of being on an adult level and is not subject to the aging out process. According to Morse, he made a critical comparison that “the reason human beings are considered more responsible as they mature is that they become more rational. The behavior of legally crazy people is no more or less determined by the laws of the universe and antecedent events than the behavior of people without disorders. The former are simply less rational” (Morse, 1997). Juveniles are not mentally compatible of understanding every aspect of life nor do they have the mental capacity to be considered an adult. Sometimes in adult court the mentally insane have special treatment and I believe juveniles should have the same rights upheld in order for the aging out process to
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