Should Juveniles Be Treated as Adults?

by Precious Logue, April 2015

300 words

1 page

essay

Human society lives under certain rules, and whenever people violate the mentioned rules, their behaviour is called anti-social and in most cases attracts attention, that by-turn leads to judgements. The most dangerous actions are classified as crimes and people who commit them are supposed to be tried in a court. However, when it comes to juvenile delinquency, legislation differ it from crimes committed by adults and soften the sanctions. To my mind, punitive measures vary from case to case.

We are used to differentiating adults from juveniles due to the age, but in fact the gap between psychological and physical age is specific for every person. It depends on genetics, nurture, environment and specific features of character, but the need to distinguish between adults and youth led to generalizing these groups by age only. If we think carefully about the main difference between adults and juveniles, we will eventually come to the concept of responsibility: adults are supposed to assume more responsibility than children and youth. As R. D. Luker suggests, “premeditated and thought out acts should require the adolescent to be tried as an adult” (2011). Thus, it is necessary to carefully analyse the behaviour of juveniles that are to be tried. Any court acts in the name of justice, and the main aim of trying juveniles is to show that no crime may be left unpunished, so that when youngsters grow up, they do not act the same way.

Hence, juvenile delinquency requires special attention not only while investigation, but also psychological examination of every case. As for me, adolescent defines much of personality and should be treated with particular care, but under any circumstances criminals must realize the malignancy of their actions for the society and a sharp distinction between the good and the bad.

References

Luker, L. D. (2011). Trying Adolescents as Adults In The Criminal Justice System. Applied Social Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.personal.psu.edu/bfr3/blogs/applied_social_psychology/2011/11 /trying-adolescents-as-adults-in-the-criminal-justice-system.html.

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