Child Committing Crimes - Essay Example

Adults wanted to keep the children separated from their adult counterparts, they wanted to keep rehabilitation as the center of focus during their sentencing, and they wanted the children to be restricted to this system. One of the justifications for this was parens patriae, meaning that the state has the right to intervene in the affairs of the child when they feel that the child is endangered or not being taken care of properly.

            One of the main guiding points is the environment in which the child has grown up. Social learning theory and living with parents that do not nurture the child can lead to an increase in deviant behavior. Therefore, the child has not been taught how to act properly in society. This would then fall under parens patriae, in which the state would intervene and focus on rehabilitation, not on punishment like the adult contemporaries. In addition, keeping the children with positive role models through foster care can also help with their deviant behavior by taking them out of areas they associated with their bad lifestyle, such as what they did in New York and Baltimore.

            One of the most important themes posed by Platt is the question of bringing juvenile crime into the scope of criminal law and the effect of nature vs nurture.  This is a completely applicable question in today’s judicial system. Some children are born with a conduct disorder which can lead to more severe deviant disorders during development. The signs can range from killing small animals to getting into fights with others. The nurture argument is a child that is raised in an environment where crime is commonplace; they become accustomed and think that it is appropriate behavior. Keeping this in mind, how do we bring in something that is either learned or genetically based into a court for trial? In today’s society, this is applicable due to many different factors. Humans are living closer together making conflicts and crime occur more frequently. The advent of violent video games can also play a role in aggression which can lead to a child committing crimes. In juvenile justice today, it is important to keep these ideas in mind due to the biopsychosocial aspect of child-related crime.