Paper Topic:

Should juveniles who commit henious crimes be tried as adults ?

Clients name

Course

The Treatment of Juvenile Offenders as Adults

Introduction

The prosecution of juvenile offenders has bred much consternation amongst youth workers , the public and the legal system . This is not surprising considering a number of ethical questions that will be raised much later . In this we outline the history and significance of this problem while also looking at some psychological and social issues regarding the treatment of juveniles as adults . Within the text we also review arguments for and against the treatment of juveniles as adults while

we discuss in depth the fact that juveniles are still developing in their brain and have not developed coping skills that come with life experience

History

In early United States history , the law was governed primarily the `common law ' of England (ABA , 2008 :

4 . Previously , the lawyer William Blackstone had had great influence in the way the law was viewed . He cited two things surrounding whether or not a crime had in fact been committed : one , there had to be intent (vicious criminal intent and second , the act had to be `unlawful (ABA , 2008 :

4 Blackstone did however determine one group of people who were `incapable ' of committing crimes : `infants . Infants were not infants in the strict sense but those who were incapable of understanding the meaning of their actions (ABA , 2008 :

4 . In Blackstone 's definition children under the age of 7 were automatically categorized as `infant and could not be tried for felony crimes , but those 14 years and older could be charged as adults (ABA , 2008 :

4 . The unfortunate `grey ' area was seen to be between the ages of 7-14 years (ABA , 2008 :

4 . Arguably though , it could be said that even the definition of the age 14 is not without conflict , since youngsters develop at different rates as will be discussed later on in the psychology section of the essay . It was in the early nineteenth century that things began to change with social reform advocates creating specialized institutions for troubled youths (ABA 2008 :

5 . The Chicago Reform School opened in 1855 in to house these `delinquents (ABA , 2008 : p5 . The first Juvenile court itself stood in Cook County , Illinois , but soon the idea spread to other states in an attempt to rehabilitate juveniles rather than prosecute them (ABA 2008 :

5 . Over time though , the age at which violent crimes and serious felonies were committed , became younger and younger , using the example the case of Morris Kent . Kent was first criminally involved in the juvenile court in 1966 for housebreaking and petty theft , but it was only two years later at age 16 that he was found to have been involved in the rape and robbery of a woman in her apartment (ABA , 2008 :

6 This crime of course , was above and beyond the simple petty felony and now became violation and grievous bodily harm . It was clear to the adult courts that juvenile courts were not...

20 pages

75.5 KB

Free sing-up