Children if convicted of a capital crime, should be given the death penalty - Essay Example

Historically, only 2 percent of capital punishment was juvenile execution since a large number of capital punishment imposed on children was either reversed or commuted. Often public opinion is considered, but “it is critical to distinguish between judging what is cruel and unusual punishment and what should become policy for such issues as capital punishment” (Kalbeitzer & Goldstein, 174). This paper focuses on different perspectives regarding this sensitive issue. Unlike many developed countries, United States is still embracing capital punishment for serious offenders.

One major objective of juvenile criminal system “is to hold juvenile offenders accountable for delinquent acts while providing treatment, rehabilitative services, and programs designed to prevent future involvement in law-violating behavior” (Cothern, 1). The juvenile court was established in Chicago in 1889 in order to protect the juvenile offenders from receiving rough treatment in the criminal justice system. The juvenile court accepted that adults and children have different developmental capacities; therefore it advocated rehabilitation as alternative for capital punishment in case of children.

However due to the growing number of young people getting involved in criminal activities in the turn of this century, the juvenile justice system has become more prone towards more rigid policies and stricter punishments. It now happens that children below the age of 18 who have committed capital crimes are subjected to the ultimate form of punishment like the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole. Supporters of juvenile death penalty see it as a way to deter other young people from committing similar kinds of crimes, and a way to maintain public safety (Cothern, 1-2).

As of 2000, more than two-third of all independent states advocate death penalty. In 1999, 30 offenders were executed other than 3,500 others who were on death row. Even