The perfect crime has its perfect punishment, and that punishment goes for everyone no matter what? If Mike shoplifts a small ten dollar item, should he get 15 years in state prison? No, that is not a punishment that matches shoplifting, maybe 10 hours of community service would serve him right and Mike will not steal again. If James murders someone and gets 10 hours of community that definitely does not match; 6 years to life sounds a lot better and does match. Should all juveniles be tried as adults? If the youth offender commits a heinous crime, the juvenile should be tried as an adult.
According to Laurence Steinberg, a writer of USA Today, “Rather than choosing to define offenses committed by youth as delinquent, society increasingly is opting to redefine them as adults and transfer them to the adult court and criminal justice system,” society is saying juvenile delinquents committed a crime, and should be treated as an adult. Steinberg goes on to report “Most reasonable people agree that a small number of young offenders should be transferred to the adult system because they pose a genuine threat to the safety of other juveniles, the severity of their offense merits a relatively more severe punishment or their history of repeated offending bodes poorly for their ultimate rehabilitation.” Steinberg also goes on to say that out of the tens of thousands of young people, who are currently being prosecuted in the adult system, a huge portion of which didn’t even commit violent crimes.
In March of 2001 a Florida jury sentenced 14 year old Lionel Tate, to life in prison without parole for accidentally killing his younger sister which he was practicing wrestling moves on. According to John D. Salant of the Associated Press, “The private MacArthur Foundation study released today says that many children under 16 had as much difficulty grasping the complex legal proceedings as adults who had been ruled incompetent to go to court.” If juveniles in a legal proceeding are as useful as putting an adult who has “been ruled incompetent” because the offender “cannot grasp the complexity of his actions,” then why is there a juvenile legal system? Yes, there are some cases in which the youth offender does not understand what his or her actions have caused, but that is not the case all of the time. Some juveniles do know what they are doing, and commit heinous crimes because they had a disagreement with someone.
In the chart below “Over three-quarters of these cases involved 17 year old offenders, and two-thirds of them were offenders of color. In contrast, 81% of the victims were adults. Over two-thirds of the victims are white, and half are females.” ("Characteristics of Offenders and Victims in Juvenile Death Penalty Cases (As of December 31, 2004)")
Characteristics of Offenders and Victims in Juvenile Death Penalty Cases (As of December 31, 2004)
JUVENILE OFFENDERS VICTIMS OF JUVENILE OFFENDERS
AGE AT TIME OF CRIME RACE
Age Nr %
16 13 18
17 58 82
Race Nr %
Native Amer. 1 1
Asian 2 3
Black 29 41
Latino 15 21
White 24 34
BY AGE BY RACE BY GENDER
Age Nr
0-15 13
16-19 12
20-29 15
30-39 15
40-49 14
50-59 8
60-69 4
70-79 8
80-82 1
Unknown 6
Race Nr
Native
Amer. 1
Asian 7
Black 8
Latino 10
White 64
Unknown 6
Gen. Nr %
M 49 51
F 47 49
“As of December 31, 2004, 71 persons were on death row for juvenile crimes. These 71 condemned juveniles constituted about 2% of the total death row population of 3,487. Although all were ages 16 or 17 at the time of their crimes, their current ages range from 18 to 43. They were under death sentences in 12 different states and had been on death row from 4 months to 24 years. Texas had by far the largest death row for juvenile offenders, holding 29 (40%) of the national total of 72 juvenile offenders” says, Professor Victor L. Strieb, former Dean and Professor of law at Ohio Northern University, now at Elon University Law School. ("Characteristics of Offenders and Victims in Juvenile Death Penalty Cases (As of December 31, 2004)") Should juveniles really be treated differently when they know what they are doing?
Work Cited
Steinberg Web. 20 Jan 2011.
Salant, John. "Youths Shouldn't Be Tried As Adults, Study Says Many not competent enough to aid defense." Associated Press (2003): n. pag. Web. 22 Jan 2011.
"Characteristics of Offenders and Victims in Juvenile Death Penalty Cases (As of December 31, 2004)." Juvenile Offenders Who Were on Death Row. Web. 22 Jan 2011.
