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Trying Juveniles As Adults

Trying Juveniles as Adults
If your son or daughter were killed by a seventeen-year-old, would you be able to accept the fact that the murderer would be walking the streets again in less than a year because the law allows those under eighteen to be tried as juveniles? Forty-four states and Washington, DC, passed several laws between 1992 and 1997 enabling the judiciary to transfer juveniles to the adult court system. Today, murders committed by adults have decreased over 18%, but murders by juveniles have increased 22%. Throughout this paper I am going to explain why many criminologists feel juveniles commit crimes, I am also going to discuss the "Three Strikes and You're Out" laws, the three ways a juvenile can end up in adult court, and why juveniles should be tried as adults. I will also incorporate the views of people who oppose trying juveniles as adults and their reasons for this. If a juvenile is old enough to commit a serious crime, then he or she is old enough to face serious consequences.
First, criminologists who deal with juveniles believe poverty, family factors, the environment, media influence, and declining social morality are the main reasons for juvenile crime. It is considered out-dated to say that poverty causes crime, but nearly 22% of children under the age of eighteen live in poverty. Disorganization, dilapidation, deterioration, and despair are all associated with social isolation and economic stress, which are two main factors of poverty (O'Connor). Police patrol through run-down, poverty-stricken areas more frequent in large cities. To the kids in these areas, this only backs up the idea that the enemy is society. Another indicator of juvenile crime is fatherless children. In the United States we see fathers as the ones who provide economic stability, act as role models, and alleviate the stress of mothers. Without a father, many young men have no one to turn to as a role model. About 50% of marriages in the US end in...