Crime and Punishment: Sentencing Juvenile Offenders

Everyday in the news you hear of someone being raped, killed, or assaulted. These days, the victims are all too often innocent children. What kind of sick minded adult could do such a thing to a child many might ask. While there are plenty of sick, abusive, pedophile, and child harming adults, there are also many children who hurt and kill other children. Two teenage girls get into a fight and one pulls out a knife and stabs the other one who dies from her wounds, an older sibling is jealous of all the attention his infant brother is getting so he shakes the baby and physically beats him about his head causing skull fractures and internal brain damage, or some kid walks up to a random person on the street and shoots them dead as a part of a gang initiation. Sound far fetched? It shouldn't because it happens everyday.

What's interesting with juvenile offenders is that their punishment for their sometimes brutally heinous crimes is much too light. Say an adult had done any of those things listed in the paragraph above; their sentence would have been harsh and the judge and jury would have had little or no sympathy for them at all. In fact, if they were relatively close to being legal at the age of 18, they would most likely be tried and prosecuted as an adult rather than as a juvenile.

It will often be said that the juvenile has emotional problems or questions may be raised about their upbringing--whether or not they come from a broken, single parent home, if they have family members who have a history of being in and out of jail, or if the juvenile was in his or her correct mental state at the time of the crime. These areas raised in the juvenile's defense are nothing more than reasons to try to excuse what they did or make it seem like they were not responsible for their own actions at the time.

When charged as a juvenile, many offenders will be released from the facility they served their sentence in upon reaching their 21st birthday. Is this fair for someone who stabbed someone to death during a fight at the age of 15 to be released on the condition that they are 21 years of age? What justice does that bring to the family of the victim? At 21, you're still young and have a life time ahead of you. There will even be programs to assist you in finding work and living arrangements. There will be no worries of the death penalty or serving 50 years to life in prison. It seems as if many juvenile offenders are getting a slap on the wrist. They are getting lesser charges for serious crimes. How can they learn the consequences of their actions and be rehabilitated if they don't see the seriousness of the full extent of their criminal behavior?

It's no surprise that today there are many flaws within the criminal justice system. There are many repeat offenders, there are innocent people locked up waiting for their day in court, and there are people who's punishment doesn't fit their crime. A rapist can get out of jail in less than 10 years, a murderer can be released on good behavior, someone who got into a fist fight may be charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon or even attempted murder although they didn't have a weapon while someone who shoots someone in cold blood can be charged with manslaughter rather than murder. In some cases it may even be said to be involuntary. Too many children are following the wrong crowd and being influenced by their negative surroundings. While some of them may be the product of a bad environment, others may just have pure evil and malice in their hearts.

Recently in the news an 18 year old male brutally stabbed his 11 year old twin half brothers, killing one of them and critically wounding the other. He is currently bring brought up on charges. While the outcome of this particular case is still unknown, there is a good chance he won't receive as harsh a sentence as he deserves since he is said to suffer from emotional problems. It's a fact that some people suffer from emotional or even psychological problems, but does that excuse their criminal behavior? We all have times when we feel as if we are going to snap but that doesn't give us the right to go out and harm another individual.

Many of these juveniles who come out of jail fall into a criminal cycle and end up right back inside just like their adult counterparts. Obviously this isn't true for all, but it is true in many cases. And in cases of committing another brutal or serious crime, the question often arises as to why this individual was let back into society to hurt again. How could someone who murdered or raped a child be released back into a society to do something like that again just because they were considered a juvenile when they did it the first time?

When a child tells a lie his parents may scold him and try to teach him that lying is wrong, when a child disobeys his parents may spank or punish him, when a child beats his own sibling half to death purposely in a jealous fit of rage, is it not right to give him a punishment to fit his crime? Why should he be released from jail at the age of 21? People who commit nonviolent crimes sometimes serve more time in jail than those who commit violent crimes. No one wants to see our children in jail to begin with as it is heartbreaking to see them throw away their futures. However, when someone commits a crime whether they are 15 or 25, their punishment should fit the crime. A slap on the wrist isn't cutting it. Attempting to correct wrong behavior only will comes once the behavior is accepted for what it is, and not something of a lesser degree based on the offenders age.