Whats My Age Again
Children have become increasingly violent since the 1970s. Today more gangs exist and homicides occur than in the past thirty years. Crime rates have only dropped slightly in the five previous years (Vieregge n.p.). Now that more juvenile delinquents are entering the justice system, the question arises as to how they should be tried. Being tried in a juvenile court for a serious offense is much like a slap on the wrist. Sure, they can be sent to an adult correctional facility if sentenced to it in a juvenile court, but the longest amount of served will be twenty years. In contrast, trying a juvenile as an adult guarantees that the youth will be held accountable for his or her actions. Children commit violent acts throughout the United States and believe that they cannot be held responsible for their actions; such a practice should change and violent juvenile should be used as examples to the rest of the country's youth by being tried as adults in the United States Justice System. Overall, the crimes of juveniles have become much larger and the ages of the delinquents have dropped considerably since the first juvenile court was established in 1899. The main purpose of this court was to deal with miscreants that threw b
ricks or rocks through windows (Butterfield 154). Today, the juvenile courts have a much harder task at hand. In 1985 and 1986, Howard Snyder found an increase of 75 percent among juveniles for crimes involving drugs (Hurst 2). The crime rates seem to have sky-rocketed ever since the early 1980s. The fastest growing crime has become possession of a loaded gun. Yet, the youth of America are not just carrying those loaded guns and not using them. The year of 1991 produced armed robbery exceeding drug-related offenses (Kramer 213). The two previous years had brought a 26 percent increase in juveniles arrested for murder and non-negligent manslaughter. Those same two years lead to a 17 percent increase in aggravated assault (214). As the reader can clearly see, crimes committed by juveniles have drastically risen in the past twenty years. Today, with a little over twenty-two million Americans between the ages of thirteen and nineteen (Vieregge n.p.), many criminologists expect a new surge in crime (Butterfield 154). Butterfield, Fox. "Harsh Punishment for Violent Youths: An Overview." Current Controversies : Youth Violence. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1998. An in-depth chapter discussing statistics and studies of youth violence. Hepburn, Mary A. "Television Violence May Cause Youth Violence." Current Controversies : Youth Violence. San Diego, CA : Greenhaven, 1998. An informative chapter arguing that youths pick- up violent habits due to violent television programming. If they commit the crime, they should do the time. Juveniles today believe that their crimes will have no resulting punishment because they are considered minors. They are wrong! Actions do have consequences! I believe in swift and certain punishment, especially when a child has committed an extremely serious offense (i.e. second-degree murder, armed robbery, etc.). Juvenile delinquents should be tried in the adult court system to insure that they will not be back again. We owe it to the law-abiding citizens in these great United States of America to punishment the juvenile offenders in the manner of their crimes; harshly. Dallao, Mary. "Rehabilitation Programs Can Reduce Youth Violence." Current Controversies : Youth Violence. San Diego, CA : Greenhaven, 1998. An argumentative chapter advocating the good of rehabilitation programs for troubled youth. Hurst, Hunter. "Turn of the Century : Rediscovering the Value of Juvenile Treatment." Corrections Today Feb. 1990 : 48-50. SIRS Researcher on the Web. Available HTTP : http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article...1900&type=ART&sound=no&key=Rape_Factors. 30 Mar. 2000. 1-4. An article on developing trends in juvenile crimes. Explores causes for youth violence and researches early court system. Gangs have become a prevalent cause of youth violence. According to the Justice Department, there were one hundred twenty thousand gang members in one thousand four hundred thirty-six gangs nationwide in 1998. Contrary to that report though, is the Washington Times statistic that in 1995, there were more that three hundred fifty thousand gang members nationwide. Obviously, gang activity is extremely extensive. Not only are gangs, getting larger and stronger, but they are becoming more violent. Authorities in California characterize the gangs today as "'heavily armed...involved in drug trafficking, witness [to] intimidation, extortion, and bloody territorial wars.'" When police, students, and teachers were surveyed by Metropolitan Life, 93 percent of them maintained that violence in schools was caused by gang membership (Hacker 88). Some advocates for lesser punishments of juveniles argue that prison is a hurtful experience for a teen because that same teen will emerge years later from a world of no affection, no positive role models, and "no education other than an intensive immersion in the ways of crime and brutality" (Geraghty 34). What do these people think a gang is
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Approximate Word count = 2829
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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