Discussion on Whether Juveniles Should Be Tried as Adults in Court

The criminal justice system has a long system since 1700s. In the olden days, criminals were tried similarly regardless of the age. There was no differentiation between the minors and the adults as no mechanism had been put in place to distinguish the two groups of individuals. Jails and prisons had mixtures of both the adults and minor criminals. This posed offenses risk to the means as their mechanism of coping is not similar to that of an adult. As a result, there was a need to have the minors and adults tried separately for the benefit of the minor’s well-being. However, with the subsequent reform and amendments made in legislation, it became paramount for minors to be tried differently from the adults. Owing to several reasons, juveniles should not be tried as adults in court. Juveniles are in their development and transition from teenage life, and they may know no better. Child development is reliant on the social, environmental, and their daily interactions.

Children get to learn how they will behave as an adult from the environments they are brought in (McCord & Crowell, 2001). Essentially, the development of delinquent behaviors among the juvenile is minimal in the criminal, which discourages involvement in criminal activities. However, in the re-offend with a high prevalence of activities, then the delinquency rate among the juvenile is quite high. In most cases, children reach adulthood before they can involve in serious delinquent behavior since their behaviors are easily identified by their guardians or parents and preventive measures taken earlier on.

Similarly, teenagers do not know much about the existing laws and the offenses that are defined in the various pieces of legislation. In most cases, what may be an offense may be a point of a child fulfilling their curiosity. For example, young boys may try marijuana to experience the high feeling. This makes them not have direct knowledge on which actions are construed as an offense. Therefore, when they are involved in crimes, they should not be tried as adults in court. Juveniles are still in the process of development, and in this stage, they learn from adults. Mixing adults and children at the same court pose a great risk to the behavior of the juveniles. When growing, minors tend to copy virtually everything from the adults who are close to them. In most cases, adults are more likely to commit serious and grave offenses as compared to children offenders.

Therefore, when both are put together during the trial, the juveniles will learn what constitutes serious crimes and try to implement it in real life. When in court, adults see it as a form of freedom, denial hence tends to become aggressive, and this behavior may be copied by the juvenile who are tried together with the adults. For the children in the juvenile system, they see it as an approach towards correcting their bent behaviors. Research points out that children who are tried together with the adults are more likely to re-offend than those who are tried in a separate juvenile justice system. The stems from the fact that children will always try to implement what they have learnt from adults who are closer to them. Therefore, juveniles should in their separate court. A criminal justice system is not well formatted to handle juvenile offenders. Starting from trial to incarceration, it is apparent that the adult system of trial is not designed in such a way that it can cater to the interest of the juvenile offenders. Primarily, the criminal justice system should be used to deter, rehabilitate, and prohibit one’s involvement in criminal activities.

However, this is not the case, as the adult justice system serves more as a punitive measure for the offenses which one has committed. The staff working in the adult criminal justice system has little or no training on how they should handle juveniles. When tried together with the adults, juvenile offenders will not realize the benefit that is supposed to accrue the justice system. Juvenile justice system focuses on rehabilitation, training, treatment, and securing the inters of the minors; conditions which are not accorded in adult justice system (Cicourel, 2017). When taking through juvenile courts, young offenders are more likely to reform to useful members of the society since they receive supportive youth services. Owing to the safe conditions that are in the juvenile justice system, the young offenders are taken care of until the time they have fully transformed. Therefore, by the time of release, they have fully reformed and become patriotic citizens. This makes it necessary to have juveniles tried separately from adult offenders. The trial of juveniles in adult facilities bulks the state’s expenditure in rehabilitation facilities.

According to the National Juvenile Justice Network, there are more than 250, 000 juveniles who are going through the trial. This number is likely to burden the taxpayers since statistics have pointed out that every year about $39 billion is spent on offenders. With the inclusion of minors in adult justice system, the budget to higher. It worth to note that juveniles are rarely involved in violent crimes and therefore trying them in the juvenile court will expedite their sentencing. As it is the nature most young offenders get non-custodial sentence and therefore are not under the state’s watch, cuts down the expenditure on the justice system as it would have been if both adults and juveniles, in the same court. The money can be reverted in other uses like assisting the youth out. This shows the essence of having separate trial of the juveniles from the adults. In essence, the system of trying adults and juvenile in the same court should be a thing of the past. Criminal justice system should aim at safeguarding the interests of juvenile by having them tried in separate court. This stems from the fact that children are in their developmental stage, juvenile need protection, and care, and it saves on taxpayers’ money.