Why Juveniles should be tried as adults and Why shouldn't Juveniles be Essay

Why Juveniles should be tried as adults and Why shouldn't Juveniles be tried as adults - Essay Example Also, these courts and separate punishment laws have not helped stop or minimize the number of juvenile crimes taking place. If these delinquents are not punished properly then the next generation will be no better, probably even worse. The other side, that is that juveniles shouldn’t be treated as adults say that these children do not understand the consequence of their action and are not mature enough to handle this type of punishment. The juvenile court is there to help treat these children and not deter them. Also, by punishing the juvenile delinquents will not reduce the number of such crimes taking place but providing them with a healthy and supportive social environment will help achieve these results. (Cliff Notes, 2008) There have been some cases where children aged 7 till the ages of 14 have committed crimes. It seems unfair to judge them in an adult court as they did not understand the intensity of the crime that they have committed. In Chicago, two boys of the ages 7 and 8 were accused of killing an 11-year-old girl. The possible reason was to take her Road Warrior bike. (McLaughlin, 1998) Charging these boys with the same punishment as an adult would be a crime in itself. The adult prison is not a very safe place with all those men who are frustrated. Sending these children there would be the death of them and their innocence. On the other hand there was another case of three boys one of them who was a 15 year old. They tortured and decapitated an eight year old boy. The older companions were judged in the adult court while the fifteen year old was judged in a juvenile court, even though he was about to turn sixteen in three weeks. His punishment was a lot less than the punishment of the two older companions. He was to be released on his twenty-fifth birthday while the other two companions got life imprisonment with out