Juveniles Being Tried As Adults Essay

Juveniles Being Tried As Adults I. Introduction A. Did you know that just about every juvenile offender who has a past criminal history, or is arrested for a violent crime like rape or murder, is tried in an adult court? 1. According to a non-profit organization called Equal Justice Iniative there are over 2200 juveniles nationwide who have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 2. Children as young as 13 years of age have been tried as adults and sentenced to die in prison, typically without any consideration of their age or circumstances of the offense. 3. Much controversy exists on the question of whether a juvenile criminal should be punished to the same extent as an adult.

4. How
For example, if these teens are arrested again, prosecutors can use the threat of lengthy prison sentences as leverage to gain a plea bargain agreement that might not be in a child's interest, O'Donnell says. B. Children in adult correctional facilities suffer higher rates of physical and sexual abuse and suicide. Compared to those held in juvenile detention centers, youth held in adult jails are 7.7 times more likely to commit suicide, 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, 50% more likely to be attacked with a weapon. C. I have talked about why our youth of today are being charged as adults and being sentenced to adult prisons, and some of the effects on this problem, now I will talk about other solutions we can do in some cases where our children should not have to be charged as an adult if the crime is not heinous enough to be tried as an adult. IV. Some solutions we can come up with as to why our children should not be tried as adults in some cases.

A. Instead of trying juveniles as adults, efforts should be focused on crime prevention. Not only will crime prevention provide a better answer, but it will provide more versatility as well. Crime prevention uses several