Take a stand

Dear criminal court,

Lost Teens

By Joseph Nash

November 12

Every year many lives are lost due to the unkindly acts of teens. Teens will murder, lie, kill and steal just to say “i wonder what if feels like to do it” and therefore they get sentenced to life an tried as adults. But Why ? Why do teens act like this? What could possibly be going on in their brains? Some may agree on this for punishment and some may say this is too harsh as a punishment. On my side I feel that teens getting tried as adults is harsh. I'm not saying this because I am also a teen but first we really need to understand the cause of the problem. If a teen has murders someone and you ask the way he might just tell you “ I wondered what it would feel like to shoot a person with a gun” that word wonder is what we need to put in context. Teens do these things because they are curious or they just “wonder” the word wonder plays a huge role in the psychology of the brain.

Psychology and development of the brain play big factors in teens because they really don’t know what they are doing. Brains do not develop quickly. Shakespere states that “there’s no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in between but getting wenches with child,wronging the ancient, stealing,fighting” tries to tell us teen brains are always developing they will never stop. Another quote from aristotle is that “the young are heated by Nature as drunken me n by wine” he makes a comparison between teens and men. Teens seem to act ‘dumb’ and ‘carelessley’ with the brains they have just like men that are drunk.

David Dobbs from the article of beautiful brains seems to stand in the same position and also puts numerous amounts of psychology about the brain to back up his stance and show why teens act the way they do. Dobbs states “They act that way because their brains aren’t done! You can see it right there in the scans” he doesn’t just back it up with research but also uses scans to prove it more to people so they can illustrate what he means. However we do know that teens have bad behaviors but dobbs says dangerous behaviors can “generate positive ones” such as being more social and just having satisfaction with their life because that’s truly what teens search for . It’s satisfaction. After proving why teens act the way they do, punishment is nearly more important because it’s their results or what they are receiving for their actions. Before any decisions are made in the courtroom I feel that they should tell themselves if kids can’t do adult things why should they be sentenced like one. Coming from should 11-year olds be charged with adult crimes by Phillip Holloway a CNN legal analyst says “But the fact remains that children are children-they are not adults and their brains do not work the same as an adult… Children cannot enlist in the military. Children indeed, adults under 21 cannot legally order a beer” federal and criminal courts should understand this and make the appropriate decision and punishment for all teens including age 17. Unless age laws were destroyed and children can legally do adult activities and engage in them punishment should be fair and equal no matter the age. It pains me to hear and know that there are children under the age of ten being prosecuted as adults when acknowledging that children can not understand the nature and consequences of their actions. I do understand that murder is a big situation and its no joke, but if you look at results of sentencing youth as adults they seem to be fruitless. An article from the Human Impact Partners titled charging youth as adults is ineffective,Biased, and harmful-executive summary stands out because they show what criminal courts are trying to hide from society. They include a lot of evidence of past

‘Before and afters’ when sentencing children as adults. There are alot of people that stand on the side of sentencing youth as adults, but I feel that if they read this article they may change their perspective and views on the situation. The article reveals that “harshly punishing youth by trying them in the adult system has failed as an effective deterrent” studies show that sentencing them as adults has caused many factors. It seems to the article that the adult court ignores the environmental factors that affect adolescent behavior. The persuasive part of this article is when they list these environmental factors they are: “community disinvestment affects youth development and behavior, poverty creates stress,childhood traumas, and youths do not make decisions like adults. I wish that the criminal court and anyone that stands on either side can now stand up and be persuaded to take the right stand so that society can open their eyes about the issue and resolve it.

Sincerely, Joseph Nash