Should Juveniles Receive Life Sentences and Tried as Adults - Essay Sample

Introduction

Judging and dealing with juveniles who commit criminal activities has some contradiction when it comes to giving corrections and or punishments to the offenders. The question that contradicts here is if after committing a crime the juveniles should be judged and punished in the same manner as the adults who commit similar crimes. It is true that there exist several differences in various aspects between the adults and juveniles but is this what can make juveniles to involve themselves in deadly or criminal activities in the society and evade punishments that are meant to correct them?

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Many arguments and perceptions are there that are based on how the juvenile should be handled after they commit crimes. The juvenile has in most parts of the United States exempted from harsh punishments just in the name of they are still young and in their hands of their parents. Some other arguments claim that the parents and or guardians of these young crime offenders should be responsible for giving the choices whether their children should be punished in this way or the other depending on the crime they have committed.

However, this issue about the judgment of juvenile the same way as adults are judged in law courts and correctional measures taken on them has aroused a number of questions. For example, what is the difference between an adult or juvenile offender who have done equally a crime of the same magnitude like in this case murder and why should their punishment be different? The other question about the same issue is whether it will really be fair or not to give the juvenile and adults corrections and judgments of the same level based on their crime? Are life sentences really fair for juvenile offenders?

The United States has got the juvenile correctional and judicial bodies which are there and out in place to specifically deal with the young children of less than 18 years of age who get involved in adverse criminal activities. The juvenile courts have actually been entrusted with the responsibility of correcting the crimes in the young by providing the necessary punishments based on the crime that has been committed (Greene & Evelo, 2013). There are several provisions and strategies that have been put in place by juvenile courts that control how the juveniles should be dealt with as per the crime they have done. It is clear to note that the policies of the juvenile courts are not that effective to help control crime in the juveniles.

Adults who commit murder cases in the United States when judged in the criminal law courts are given punishments like death sentences among others depending on the magnitude of the crime which the adults have done. A life sentence is actually the most applicable measure taken on the adults for such a crime. Juvenile offenders who commit a big crime like murder and are evaded from such punishment like life sentence are getting chances to get involved in greater crimes as time goes by (Johnson, 2016). A killer remains a killer if so and an offender still remains an offender. The difference may exist in the level of understanding of the two groups of offenders but however, when punishments are given and corrections made, what is being rectified is the mistake in either the adult or even the juveniles. There should be no differentiation of the corrective measures taken in adult criminals and juvenile criminals. They are all criminals and there is a need to have a balance in the way they are getting dealt with.

So when it comes to the dealing with juvenile offenders who have involved themselves in criminal activities that against the provisions of the law like rape and murder, life sentences should be applied to both the adult offenders as well as the juveniles. Why should a juvenile criminal be spared by the law and then bring up countless adult criminals in the future? It should be considered with great concern that it is these spared juveniles who know how to commit these adverse crimes that grow up and become adults (Petersilia & Reitz, 2012). When they become adults without having been corrected for their criminal acts as a juvenile, then it means that there will be a great increase in the level of criminal activities taking place in society.

The arguments that the juveniles should not be given life sentences in the view that they are still young are not anything good. Instead, it is just a fact that these juveniles are being wasted. Moreover, juvenile firms like courts need to make changes to their systems to make sure that no juvenile individual who engages in crime is by any chance spared (Singer, 2011). What would work best is that they are treated in a similar manner as adult offenders. When harsh correction measures are imposed on the juvenile criminal offenders early enough in their life before they adapt to the crime, then it will be with no doubt that their chances of changing to positive aspects of the society before they become adults are high.

Everyone out there expects that a good society will one day exist. If this will happen then the shaping of the current society will contribute to the creation of that future society in which criminal cases and or vises will totally not be there or will be minimal. The juveniles are the society of the future and they must be corrected where they go wrong without having to spare them (Williams & Steinberg, 2011). A suggestion is that leaving alone the life sentences for the big crimes they commit, more harsh measures of correction need to be imposed for the juveniles even than it is done for the adults who do similar crimes. The main reason for this argument and suggestion is for the creation of a straight forward future society where each and every individual dreads getting into crime.

The only difference that should be in existence in determining whether the juveniles should be tried in and given life sentences in the courts where they are taken when they are convicted of a crime. There are special juvenile courts where the judgment of the juveniles should be done and there are those of the adult offenders (Petersilia & Reitz, 2012). However, this does not give any chance for the juvenile courts to have policies that do not work to correct juvenile crime offenders in effective ways that will result in a society free from crime.

All that should be embraced in the juvenile courts is that if the crime committed is the same as in the case of murder, what should be done is that if a life sentence has been given to an adult, the same life sentence should still be given to the juveniles who engage in the same offense as a form of correction and prevention of this from taking place again. Irrespective of the age, the punishment should just be the same for a crime of equal impact and magnitude (Singer, 2011). It is therefore very important and necessary that the juvenile courts and other related bodies that deal with crime in juveniles in the United States be revised in consideration of the way they work to correct juvenile offenders. The necessary changes should be made to the juvenile correction sectors.

Conclusion

Juvenile trials and corrections must be looked at again and again. Juveniles are upcoming adults and if they are not corrected with good care as of time like now, they will bring criminal related problems in the society in the future. They should not be favored in the view that they are young and even fragile in any way. The law should be observed and if they commit crimes punishable by a life sentence, it should be imposed on them without having been blinded by their age. Simply the slogan that a criminal is a criminal should prevail and this way, therefore, will help to control the rising levels of crimes committed by the juveniles.

Actually, the main reason as to why levels of crime in the juveniles are increasing each and every day is because the corrections system tends to be so lenient on the juveniles based on their state of inferiority. The impact of correcting them in a similar way as the adults will work well to make sure that they don't get into any of the crimes that would lead to such punishments. Therefore will all the necessary factors considered, juveniles should receive life sentences under circumstances when the crime they have done is punishable by a life sentence as of the adult offenders.

References

Greene, E., & Evelo, A. (2013). Attitudes regarding life sentences for juvenile offenders. Law and Human Behavior, 37(4), 276-289. Doi: 10.1037/lhb0000031

Johnson, R. (2016). Murder Most Human: A Case for a Categorical Ban of Life-Without-Parole Sentences for All Juvenile Offenders with Guidelines for Release Decisions for Former Juvenile Life-Without-Parole Cases. SSRN Electronic Journal. Doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2747655

Petersilia, J., & Reitz, K. (2012). The Oxford handbook of sentencing and corrections. New York: Oxford University Press.

Singer, S. (2011). Sentencing Juveniles to Life in Prison. Crime & Delinquency, 57(6), 969-986. Doi: 10.1177/0011128710396426

Williams, L., & Steinberg, L. (2011). Reciprocal Relations between Parenting and Adjustment in a Sample of Juvenile Offenders. Child Development, 82(2), 633-645. Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01523.x