Minors Committing Violent Crimes and Being Tried as Adults
Should minors who commit violent crimes be tried as adults?
Sylvia B. McCrorey
Strayer University
Professor Catherine Cousar
Research & Writing
October 17, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
The reason I selected this topic is because I feel that today’s generation of youth and children have been led mainly because of peer pressure which sometimes cause them to make bad choices. This usually causes minors to do some things that are wrong before they think about the consequences. They should be given consideration based on their age and all aspects of their background should be looked at before sentencing them for violent crimes.
REASONS WHY CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE TRIED AS ADULTS In reading an article published by CNN concerning the topic of children being tried as adults, I totally agree with the writer and agree that children should not be tried as adults in most cases because of their maturity and mind state. Usually, they have not come to a place where they can make a determination on what exactly they have done that might not have been completely right to do and they can distinguish severity of the punishment for such actions. Instead of the laws or courts wanting to put the children in the jail population, the state should come to an agreement and seek help or rehabilitation for this person who committed the crime. In a case 20 years ago, a 9 year old child shot a 7 year old little girl after pointing a rifle out of the window from his residence as she rode on a snowmobile and she was killed. This 9 year old was named Cameron Kocher who was a resident of upstate Pennsylvania. But, because of the lie that Cameron told, the trail judge kept the case in In the early part of the decade, researchers for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice found that teenagers are less blameworthy than adults, and that their capacities change significantly over the course of
Sylvia B. McCrorey
Strayer University
Professor Catherine Cousar
Research & Writing
October 17, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
The reason I selected this topic is because I feel that today’s generation of youth and children have been led mainly because of peer pressure which sometimes cause them to make bad choices. This usually causes minors to do some things that are wrong before they think about the consequences. They should be given consideration based on their age and all aspects of their background should be looked at before sentencing them for violent crimes.
REASONS WHY CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE TRIED AS ADULTS In reading an article published by CNN concerning the topic of children being tried as adults, I totally agree with the writer and agree that children should not be tried as adults in most cases because of their maturity and mind state. Usually, they have not come to a place where they can make a determination on what exactly they have done that might not have been completely right to do and they can distinguish severity of the punishment for such actions. Instead of the laws or courts wanting to put the children in the jail population, the state should come to an agreement and seek help or rehabilitation for this person who committed the crime. In a case 20 years ago, a 9 year old child shot a 7 year old little girl after pointing a rifle out of the window from his residence as she rode on a snowmobile and she was killed. This 9 year old was named Cameron Kocher who was a resident of upstate Pennsylvania. But, because of the lie that Cameron told, the trail judge kept the case in In the early part of the decade, researchers for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice found that teenagers are less blameworthy than adults, and that their capacities change significantly over the course of
References: http://www,bchrs,giv/pdffiles1/ojjdp/232434.pdf Amanda Conklin, Yahoo! Contributor Network May 25, 2010 Schwartz, R. (2010). Kids should never be tried as adults. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-18/opinion/schwartz.kids.trials_1_justice-system-juvenile-justice-cameron-kocher?_s=PM:OPINION Fagan, P. F. (1995, 03 17). The real root cause of violent crimes: The breakdown of marriage, family, and community The heritage foundation leadership for america, Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1995/03/bg1026nbsp-the-real-root-causes-of-violent-crime Osofsky, J. D. (1988). Children in a violent society. (1 ed., p. 354). Guilford publishing inc.