Dear People of The United States,
While in attendance at Mayfair High School in Lakewood, CA, our class was assigned to learn about Juvenile Justice as our big unit for that portion of our quarter. With great disappointment, I must say, that this topic has been truly captivating and nothing short of eye opening in the least. Through reading a variety of many, and I repeat, many articles about this topic. I have gained a pretty clear understanding on the subject of Juvenile Justice. I’m writing this letter just to get my voice out there, I just want to make a step and be heard. Thank you for taking the time to open this document, and if you decide to close this document, may the rest of your life be blessed, and expand your mind in any way shape or form.
Do you remember your days of adolescence? Your entire coming of age? I’m guessing most of you have said yes but to a certain extent. You probably just have memories of the good times, hanging out with your friends, doing immature things, and maybe some of the sad times of your life, such as getting injured, friends moving away, and your first experience with death, the point is we remember the things in our childhood that have truly had an impact on our life and that's about it. The brain's ability to decipher and respond to things doesn’t fully develop until the age of 25, so how could we punish a minor as an adult when they, themselves, are truly incapable of completely understanding their actions or why they do certain things. In an article called “Should 11-Year Olds Be Charged With Adult Crimes?” by Philip Holloway, goes on to explain this further. He goes on to say “... an adolescent or prepubescent child cannot understand the nature and the consequences of their actions.” I especially know children going through puberty have heightened hormones which lead to very impulsive decisions based on the factor of pure emotion. Holloway also makes a major point in his argument where he expresses that a minor can be counted on to buy alcohol or drive as an adult, so how should we have the power to charge them for crimes as one. This is especially for younger kids, especially children who do something such as finding their dad’s gun and shooting someone out of curiosity or if they’ve seen it in a movie. I truly believe at that point the parent should be punished for the crime of child neglect. They didn’t pay enough attention to their kids to express or teach them the right from wrongs which isn’t the child’s fault, you can’t pick your parents and the way they raise you.
Despite the true cruelty of this issue, there are some people who agree that minors should be charged as an adult. There main point that at a certain age, you learn right from wrong and there are some deeds that no child would ever do, so charging them as an adult is the only solution. A case of this is Lionel Tate, a 12 year old boy, who beat a young girl to death which he claimed to be an accident. It was very hard to believe Lionel after certain experts had him demonstrate the way he abused this little girl, and the experts agreed that there was no way that it was an accident. He intentionally hit her, but he didn’t know the outcome would be her death. Lionel ended up serving many years in prison after being charged as an adult. He spent most of his childhood confined with older men, criminals. I agree that this deed is very saddening and not right in any way, but Lionel had to grow up with criminals in an adult prison. His closest friends in the prison had to be adults, he was exposed to even worse people out there and how did this help his development? Not in a good way at all. Lionel after being released many years later, quickly went back for a crime of assault and attempted robbery. There’s two reasons why I believe he made the decision to commit a crime again. First, is that he associated with criminals so it's only right for him to do criminal deeds. Second, the system was all he knew growing up and many criminals end up going back to jail because they know the life there, you get three meals a day, a bed to sleep on, and recreation time. This was all the cause of him losing his childhood.
Children should not be charged as adults due to their inability to comprehend their actions fully due to mental factors and their background as well. We, as a country, need to do better in raising the next generation. We have to take more responsibility for our children because all bad people weren’t born that way. They were brought up that way, and for that we end up exploiting them to a harsh life by leading them in to just that.