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Should Teens Be Tried As Adults MAG
Should teenagers be tried as adults? Opinions differ. Some people argue that teenagers don't know what they are doing when they commit a crime and are still too young to comprehend what is right and wrong. I totally disagree. I am old enough to know that committing a crime is wrong and that if I commit one, I will be punished. Anyone who says teens can't tell right from wrong is either too old to remember what being a teenager is like or they are a teenager who has committed a crime and don't want to be tried as an adult. In either case, they are wrong. All teens know that killing is wrong, yet they do it anyway and get away with a light sentence because of their age. Even if a teen didn't know it was wrong, it doesn't mean it's right. They should still be punished. If they aren't, they willthink that crimes are okay and continue to commit them.
Teens today don't fear the law because they don't think they will get caught. And if they do, they know they have a good chance of getting off because they are tried as teens and not adults. We have to get tougher on crime. There should be a law that everyone over eleven years old will be tried as adults. That way more teens would be discouraged from committing crimes. They would know that murder would get them a very long sentence instead of staying in juvenile hall until they are eighteen. If we want to cut down on teen crime, we have to have tougher laws. ?
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This article has 323 comments.
Of course a teenager is not a child; he or she is old enough to comprehend cause-and-effect relationships and know the consequences of breaking the law.
But consider the fact that teenagers do not have the developmental capabilities of critical thinking that adults possess. The prefrontal cortex - involved in complex decision making and regulation of emotions - does not fully develop until a person is about 21.
Now consider the implications of having a brain with an underdeveloped emotion regulation center. Teenagers make decisions based on responses from the emotional centers of their brain, like the amygdala. So if teenagers are extremely overwhelmed, upset, or angry, they may make an impulsive decision without actually being about to consider the consequences.
It is easy to say that teenagers understand right-and-wrong and cause-and-effect. But looking at the actual structure and abilities of a teenage brain, it becomes clear that they can't be tried on the same level of adults. A teenage brain works under different rules than an adult's; thus the rules for their consequences should be differentiated accordingly.
I mostly agree. Anyone of high school age (i.e., 14 to 17) should know right from wrong. Why shouldn't they be tried as an adult.
We actually, there's an answer to that: Teenagers AREN'T viewed as adults in the eyes of the law. If they're tried as adults, they would have to have other rights and privileges as adults. (In my mind, anyway. Otherwise that borders age discrimination.)
So is there a middle ground? I think so. Let's say, perhaps, that teens will still be tried as adults, and have a verdict issued against them as if they were an adult. Then, however, the punishment is reduced by some degree to compensate (obviously, not as much as it is now). Maybe someone under 18 would get punished to the tune of 67% of the consequence an adult would get. This seems fair.
I do agree with the overall principal though... So many of my acquaintances have shoplifted it's unreal...
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