BY CREIGHTON LEWIS
STAFF WRITER
During the adolescent years, the prefrontal cortex- the part of the brain that enables rational decision making, is not fully formed until the mid twenties. It makes legal scholars question whether, say, a seventeen year old raised by an abusive parent should get a lifetime in jail, or lesser punishment. Flow Psychology.com details some pros and cons to sentencing children as adults:
PROS
- Punishing minors as adults would send a signal to other minors that, even if you’re under eighteen, don’t take advantage of this and do something extreme (like murder) because gaming the criminal justice system will never be good. While minors may not think rationally, depending on their agek, they’ll be able to understand cause and effect and not perform unlawful (and unethical behaviors
- Victim Justice: Let’s say that a teen murders someone in a grocery store, but it wasn’t random: it was led up to through a series of events, but the family of the other deceased teen wants justice. Not sentinching the minor committing the crime gives them no closure, and that’s something most people deserve.
- According to Flow Psychology.com, juvenile crime is on the rise. It states that:”” In the past few years we have had record numbers of crimes being committed by juvenile offenders. This is a scary fact because it shows how the boundaries are being more and more blurred for these young people. Many of them are aware of just how flawed the juvenile justice system is, and use that to their advantage.”
CONS
- If a sixteen-year-old who killed their abusive parent is convicted is sent to an adult correctional facility, with people twice their age and have committed far more egregious crimes, it’s going to be very difficult for them to cope, especially if they thought murder was the only way to get out of their situation ( which is a longshot, but it would be different for everyone).
- Lost Hope: The idea that, if you’re tried as an adult as a teenager, the only thing you’ll ever become is a convict for the rest of your life, which is bad for you, your family, and everyone around you
- Juvenile courts have more options when it comes to disciplining/ punishing wrongdoers so they can get their life on track, depending on how extreme their crimes are, while adult judges have little wiggle room when it comes to sentencing, and often choose prison because of it.
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