Should Juveniles Be Tried and Treated Like Adults - Assignment Example

Juveniles lack the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that facilitates reasoning and judgment.

Moreover, others claim that juveniles who violate the law have a high chance of reforming their lives. Offering life imprisonment to a 13-year-old might seem morally unjust as they have a high chance of changing into law-abiding citizens as they grow up. They should, therefore, be given a second chance.

Additionally, just as we cannot treat juveniles as adults when matters such as voting and employment are concerned, there is no reason to treat them as adults when it comes to more delicate issues such as the violation of the law. An ostensible fact is that juveniles are immature and no reasoning can justify the aspect of treating them as adults in a court or prison (LawyerShop, 2008). Treating them as adults only ruins a potentially beneficial youth and exposes them to unwarranted health risks such as sexual harassment.

Proving my answer: The current population strives so much to attain equality. No matter the age, a minor is capable of differentiating good from bad. The juvenile is not insane and hence should be treated like an adult when it comes to criminal cases. Equality is the air that we are breathing. Regardless of who does the offense, justice must prevail and the juvenile offender should not prevaricate punishment.  Anybody who commits a crime is a criminal; the mere fact that they are juveniles does not diminish the effect of delinquency on the victim. Criminals are all over our neighborhood living happy and peaceful bliss while their victims and families of the victims are left in unfathomable suffering forever (Flowers, 2002). There is, therefore, no reason to exercise some degree of mercy when convicting juveniles since that will not help in reducing the crime rate.

Refuting other possible answers: I strongly believe that with the current advent of technology, people are brighter than you can expect and very smart intellectually. Juveniles engage in crime knowingly a fact that can be supported by the 12 % social recidivism rate among juvenile offenders (Steinberg et al., 2015).

What’s more, some juveniles simply enjoy engaging in crimes such as rape and murder. Rapists, murderers, and other convicts are being released from jail after serving only a short sentence. Reason? They are juveniles. In most cases, instead of changing to law-abiding individuals, they commit more crimes and end up in court. The 12% recidivism rate among juveniles is a number big enough to inform authorities that failing to treat juveniles the same way adults are treated is simply subjecting society to continual fear and torture.

Summary of response: Hence, on the question of whether juveniles should be tried and treated like adults, my answer is yes since an offender is dangerous and potentially harmful notwithstanding their age or level of development.