Should Juveniles Be Tried as Adults

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Regardless of how old someone is during a violent crime, the victim suffers long after incident occurs. 68 percent of victims suffer sociological, economic, and relationship problems (Swarts). Now imagine if you were that victim and the person that does this to you is only sentenced until their 18th birthday. How would you feel about that? There are many stories where the family took justice into their own hands and retaliated against that individual. Obviously this is illegal, but who can blame them for what they did, their actions are completely justified in the minds of many Americans. It’s understandable that a victim of a violent crime and their family would want the prosecution to impose the stiffest sentence possible on their perpetuator. However, the prosecution may try to resolve a case quickly by offering a plea bargain to save time and money. So whether the perpetuator is 15 years old or 40 years old when the same violent crime was committed. Many Americans believe that if they were the victim or close to the victim, they would want that individual to suffer the harshest penalty possible, regardless of age, because there’s no amount of time in prison that would equate to a lifetime of suffering trying to cope with their actions.

In conclusion, violent crimes happen every single day, and there is nothing we can do to stop it from happening every single time. We can, however, try to deter others from making the cognitive decision of committing a violent crime by instituting mandatory sentencing for those that commit violent crimes regardless of age. We have already done this with mandatory drug sentencing. I believe that if people knew how strict the law is for those that commit violent crimes, and that mercy will not be given to those under the age of 18, then maybe the rate of violent crimes among America’s youth would continue to decrease.

Works Cited

Butterfield, Fox. "A Boy Who Killed Coldly Is Now a Prison 'Monster'" The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Mar. 1989. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.

Reich, Kathleen. "Children, Youth, and Gun Violence: Analysis and Recommendations." The Future of Children 12.2, Children, Youth, and Gun Violence (2002): 4-23. Web.

Slobogin, Christopher. "When are (Should) Juveniles (be) Tried as Juveniles and When as Adults?: Treating juveniles like juveniles: Getting rid of Transfer and Expanded Adult Court Jurisdiction." Texas Tech Law Review 46.(2013): 103. LexisNexis Academic: Law Reviews. Web. 29 Nov. 2014

Snyder, Howard N. "The Juvenile Court and Delinquency Cases." The Future of Children 6.3, The Juvenile Court (1996): 53-63. Web.

Swarts, Phillip. "Justice Dept. Says 68 Percent of Victims Continue to Suffer Long after Violent Crime Is Committed." Washington Times. The Washington Times, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.