Larry and Brandon of Juveniles as Adults or Not - Case Study Example

Larry and Brandon Case Introduction There has been a lot of controversy when it comes to the question on whether to try juveniles as adults or not. A juvenile according to the US law is any person who has not attained the age of 18. An adult on the other hand is a person who has attained the age of 18. However, the law is categorical and allows for juveniles to be tried as adults in cases where the offences are deemed aggravating. Such offenses include rape, murder, attempted murder, setting fire to a building with people in it, robbery with a weapon, kidnapping or carjacking, crime with guns, drug crimes and escaping from a juvenile detention facility. According to most of the reliable sources from States in the US, quite a lower percentage of juvenile cases are transferred to the adult courts. The low numbers have shown a concern and the lingering question is whether it is positive to mix the juveniles with adults irrespective of their offenses. The other issue is the power struggle between the prosecutors and Supreme Court judges. The prosecutors usually want to show their supremacy while the prosecutors usually don’t want a dictatorial mode of stamping their authority. This is also the reason why most of the juvenile cases have not been finding their ways to the adult courts. This paper is going to analyze whether Juveniles should be mixed with the adults and conditions which permit Juveniles to be tried in adult courts. The paper will then make a conclusion and provide recommendation about the Brandon and Larry cases. Thesis Statement There exists a lot of controversies when it comes to whether juveniles who commit aggravating offenses such as rape, murder, attempted murder, setting fire to a building with people in it, robbery with a weapon, kidnapping or carjacking, crime with guns, drug crimes and escaping from a juvenile detention facility. Juveniles should not be tried as adults because of differences in psychology and age. Punishing or Reforming In New Jersey a juvenile is a person 17 years or younger. A juvenile who is 16 years or older who might have committed crimes of kidnapping, aggravated assault, homicide and other violent offenses may be tried as an adult due to the waiver laws which allows for this to happen. This is the law but I beg to differ with the law. A juvenile 14 years old is not the same as an adult 35 years old. There is a very big difference. The law makers have failed to categorize young people and adults and have instead categorized the offenses. What is important is that the juvenile and prison should remain facilities to reform and change the society positively. Mixing young children and adults is not making any positive reform instead this is transforming the young offenders to be hardcore criminals. This is evident with most of the African-Americans and the Latinos. When a juvenile like Brandon is tried as an adult, this is punishment. This is because they are putting him in conditions which are not favorable. At such tender age some of these juveniles might not be reasoning properly. Most of them are at their adolescent stage hence searching for role models. Locking them in prison is killing their dreams and giving them a chance to choose wrong role models. This is the reason they come out as hard criminals who cannot change. According to Erikson’s psychosocial theory, adolescents at the juvenile age are usually under the stage of identity vs identity confusion. Taking Brandon to the adult courts will even confuse him more as he will chose wrong company which will impact his life negatively. Larry was a teenager who is confused looking for whom to identify with. He had chosen to be a gay something that is not fully acceptable by the rest of his mates. This prompts a confrontation which later led to his shooting by Brandon. According to Laurence Steinberg a professor at the Temple University, a teen brain is like a car with a good accelerator but with weak brakes’. If given the right driver the teenage brain can reform. Brandon has the brain and the mind to know what is wrong and what is right but his decision making capacity is still underdeveloped. For this reason, taking him to jail will be punishing him and not reforming him. According to most of the studies conducted about the teenage brain, it has been founded that most of them act on impulse and not on thought. They will misread social cues and emotions hence end up in risky behaviors. For this reason, the case of Larry and Brandon should not be tried in adult courts as Brandon was less likely to stop and think about the consequences of his actions. The law is very clear and categorical when it comes to child’s rights. A juvenile must be protected by the law due to their inability to make rational decisions. It is therefore wrong to try juveniles at the adult courts irrespective of their offenses. A radical change is needed to amend the waiver law that allows juveniles to be tried as adults. If children are not given a waiver to vote during elections then why is a waiver given in case of an offense? This is an indication that there is negligence in law and the US is on the spot for neglecting children’s rights. The past 15 years has included serious interventions and research plus development of psychiatric facilities to help adolescent and children sex offenders. Despite this, most of the intervention cases are normally affected only after victimization of the children and the adolescents. Sexual abuses are the least reported cases in any law enforcement agencies. The medical analysts and therapists have also been generalizing their treatment into a group of children instead of dealing with the most affected children and adolescents. According to the office of the juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, children delinquents falling under the age of 12 are likely to become serious and violent offenders in future (Flores, 2003). Further psychopathology suggests that these children must have exhibited the same persistent disruptive behaviors while still very young or while in early childhood. This is evident with the case of Brandon who learnt the abusive characters from his father. This risk can however be minimized if early intervention measures are taken. Although this is possible, only few integrated intervention programs are working to assist these young people. A research conducted between 1950- 1995 indicates that effective interventions for serious juvenile offenders include interpersonal skills training, individual counseling, and behavioral programs (Angold, 1999). Other programs that have been effective for treatment of offenders are through the parent-child program for pre-scholars and problem solving skill program for school going children. Some of those successful intervention programs include the parent-training program based in Patterson and Gullion’s living with children in 1968 which are meant to teach adults how to identify and treat children behavior (Gullion, 1968). The mechanism works under reward and punishment where the parent is supposed to reward behavior incompatible with problem behavior and ignore or apply negative consequences to problem behavior. Webster-Stratton and Hammond conducted another successful intervention in 1997. The program involved the parent training which involved groups of parents undergoing videotaped lessons and discussions (Hammond, 1997). Conclusion In conclusion, it is quite evident that the law is partisan when it comes to the juveniles. There is need to come up with a law that specifically give the right age for adults and the one that properly defines who is a juvenile. There is also the need to remove the waiver law which is giving room for prosecutors to try even younger children of 14 years in adult courts. There is also need to distinguish between offenses and age. Irrespective of the grievance of the offense age should not be the determining factor when it comes to trying the offenders. There is no circumstance that allows juveniles to be tried as adults since the two are quite different. Works Cited Angold, A. (1999). Cormobidity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychaitry, 58-87. Flores, R. (2003). Treatment, Services and Programs for Deiquecny Juveniles. Child Deliquency, 14-16. Gullion, P. &. (1968). Living with Children . New methods for parents and teachers, 7-28. Hammond, W.-S. &. (1997). Treatin Children with early onset conduct problems. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 93-109. Read More