Ghandour1
Issa Ghandour
Mrs. Ruggles
English 5c
21 January 2014
Locked Up too Young
Currently, juveniles are being punished excessively. The question at the center of debate regarding juvenile justice is when a young person commits a violent crime resulting in a death of an innocent person, how many lives should be lost? By examining both sides of the issue, one can better understand the complexity of giving juveniles the punishment that the major obstacles faced when putting adolescents on trial as adults are misjudging the development of their brains, placing juveniles in a harmful environment, and failing to reintegrate those in need.
The approach to charging juvenile offenders now are significantly different in 1980’s and 1990’s. For example, “During the 1980’s, the public perceived that serious crime was increasing and that the system was too lenient with offenders.”(ncjrs.gov) In the 80’s, it was almost as if the court accepted the fact that there are increasing crimes and they were allowing this to occur. It should not be this way because so many injuries and crimes will be taking place because criminals are getting the mindset that it is okay to do such. For instance, “During the 1990’s the nation saw a time of unprecedented change in state legislatures passed laws to crack down on juvenile crime, as Americans voiced growing concern over highly publicized and violent juvenile crime.” (ojj.la.gov)
Ghandour2
Ten years later they decided to tighten up because they realized the concerned nation was noticing how lenient court was being. This all happened because legislatures
passed laws so this could all take place, It is good this happened because criminals could have gotten out of proportion. As you can see, a lot can change over...