The question that seems to come up a lot in the news these days are kids being tried as adults. They (kids) believe that they are old enough to run around and make the bad decisions that they have made, but are they not old enough to be punished as an adult? The question is why? According to Children in Adult Children there are many reasons as to why the judicial systems do not want to treat them the same as adults. The courts believe that if the child is having dysfunctions at home and have not been properly educated or been given the help that they need, they will have these problems in the real world. They don’t believe that children should be in the same jails and around the older men/women who will only make things worse for the children. There are two assumptions that are behind recent legislation passed in many U.S. states which make it easier to try juvenile offenders as adults.
Young offenders will receive sentences in the adult criminal system in which are harsher and more proportional to their crimes.
The threat of this harsher punishment will result in lowered juvenile crime rates.
Although there has not been extensive research into the harsher and stricter laws, it does indicate that juveniles in criminal court may actually result in higher rates of reoffending if they do not take the punishment seriously. In some states, the more serious crimes call for juveniles to be tried as an adult. In some cases the juvenile is able to have a judge sign off on a waiver for them to not be tried as an adult.
“In most states, a juvenile offender must be at least 16 to be eligible for waiver to adult court. But, in a number of states, minors as young as 13 could be subjected to a waiver petition. And a few states allow children of any age to be tried as adults for certain types of crimes, such as homicide. The current trend among states is to lower the minimum age of eligibility for waiver into adult court. This is due in part to public perception that juvenile crime is on the rise, and offenders are getting younger.”
Factors that might lead a court to grant a waiver petition and transfer a juvenile case to adult court include:
The juvenile is charged with a particularly serious offense.
The juvenile has a lengthy juvenile record.
The minor is older.
Past rehabilitation efforts for the juvenile have been unsuccessful.
Youth services would have to work with the juvenile offender for a long time.
This could or could