Should Teens Be Tried As Adults: Article Analysis

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Should teens be tried as adults? Do teenagers notice what they are doing when they are committing a crime? Of course they do! They are mature enough to notice that committing a crime is wrong, they are also aware of the consequences. So what should happen if a teenager commits a serious crime? Juveniles are almost adults and they should be responsible for their actions. I agree to Julie Ray's article when it says "Americans feel like juveniles who commit violent crimes should be treated the same as adults." How can people feel safe knowing teens in their neighborhood can rob or murder them and get away with it? These types of crimes need to be justified. Teenagers need to serve adult sentences so the teens committing the crimes. If we can limit crimes, citizens will feel safer.…show more content…
For instance, Laurence Steinberg says in his article ( Should juvenile offenders ever be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole?) " IT is never a fair sentence for a juvenile, whose character is unformed and whose involvement in crime reflects the immature judgment of adolescence." I completely disagree. In fact, Yale University proved that babies that are six months old can tell the difference between right and wrong. Teenagers definitely know what they are doing. For instance, a sixteen year old who decides to murder someone knows exactly what he is doing when he picks up the weapon and targets someone. He will also do anything he can not to get caught because he is aware of the consequences. So when he gets caught he needs to be tried as an adult and serve adult time. "Although not all teens are equal, a fourteen year old who has been apart of a street gang for two years may be more mature than a fifteen year old who's had no previous contact with law enforcement." quoted in North Carolina Lawyers

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