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Gabriela Sergi

Mrs. DiSomma

ERWC Period 5

16 March 2017

Consequences

Juvenile delinquency has been a difficult yet prevalent topic for years. I do not agree

with the 2012 Supreme Court decision that juveniles who commit murder cannot receive a life

sentence. Age should not be a deciding factor in how long a person goes to jail for murder.

There are some points made about young adults that can change the perspective of

people. Many urge for youth that treatment which would deal with the traumas and deficiencies

noted in [their] development would be a more appropriate sentence (Anderson). Mental health

is important and if there could be a chance of healing and getting better, then the chance should

be taken. Children sentenced for life want [people] to see [theyre] not the crazy 14-year-old

kid they remember [they] need them to see what [theyve] become (Anderson). People can

change. We change every day, and that is what some juveniles want the chance to prove. It can

be said it is not all at fault for the juveniles since a 15 year old Yuba city youth, who reportedly

claimed he was mimicking a TV program about little girls who rob a bank was given a 26-to-life

prison term (Lundstrum). As children are very impressionable they are being constantly molded

by society and what they are taught. Although I can see where these people are coming from,

thinking juveniles do not deserve life sentences for murder is something I do not agree with.

Kenneth Young was sentenced to life in prison due to multiple counts of robbery. Once of his

victims testified she was :afraid and uncomfortable walking the same streets with him, even 12

years later (Children). The justice system should protect the victim, and if a victim says he or
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she would be in fear for their safety if their perpetrator was released, that should be listened to.

A young man named Beeler like it when he cut [his] teachers wrist open with a watch

(Young). A person like that should be considered a danger to society. Greg Ousley wasnt just

an impulsive teen he went to his neighbor's house after he killed his parents to claim

someone else had killed them and he found them already dead (Anderson). That is calculating

and not something he just had to do. He needed an alibi, and went out of his way to do so.

People may kill because they are unstable, but most psychi cannot be cured. Humans murder

because there is something wrong deep down inside their brain. For safety and justice juveniles

should be put in prison for life.

Once someone kills a human being, they are no longer an innocent child. Majority of

felonies were committed by kids 15-17 years old (Harris). A felony can be classified as rape,

murder, or an intense case of robbery. Once innocence has been taken from someone else by

force, the juvenile loses theirs as well. 92% were sent to probation even though felonies, like

rape and murder, were done (Harris). Someone, especially a child, that raped or took the life of

another, should not be sent off with a slap on the wrist. What [Greg] is, or was, is a teenage boy

who planned and carried out a crime so unthinkable it is not just a moral transgression, but

almost a biological one (Anderson). Greg committed a crime, a murder, so monstrous that

those around him could only answer with the fact he had to be insane. Some argue that a

teenagers underdeveloped brain is the reason they commit murder. But if that was true then the

rates of teen killings would be the same all over the world. They are not. It is proven that the

development or lack thereof does not affect their criminal tendencies (Jenkins). Our brains do

not determine whether or not we choose to kill or not. Human beings always have a choice

between right and wrong. In result of state arrests making it easier for children to be tried as
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adults, juvenile murder stats went down by 68% (Lundstrom). By trying kids as adults, it strikes

some feat into what is left of their conscience. Trying kids as adults not only detours them from

committing heinous crime, but also prevents them from committing those crimes again.

There is always a choice between right and wrong kill or not kill. After a series of

other crimes, he planned the murders for months, carefully and privately. He did not act on

impulse or because of peer pressure is a clear demonstration of knowing exactly what he is

doing (Jenkins). If a murder is committed purposefully then it shows dedication and thought.

The judge in Kenneths case says that he may be rehabilitated in prison, but its a different in the

outside world (Children). His actions now in prison do not counteract the crimes he did. Most

do not like the idea of children in jail with all the bad guy adults. But Juveniles are held in their

own separate detention center until they are 18 (Children). At that stage they are truly adults

serving in adult time in an adult prison, for their adult crime. Juveniles can grow up in a bad

area, or say they took anothers life because they were angry. But those reasons are not excuses.

Killers cannot be changed. The drive inside their brain to murder cannot be fixed.

Whether a person is 4 or 40, right and wrong can be clearly distinguished. A person who takes

the life of another, who steals the innocence of someone else, should not be allowed to walk in

society as if everything is forgiven and forgotten.

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Works Cited

Anderson, Scott. Greg Ousley is Sorry for Killing His Parents. Is that Enough? New York

Times

Magazine. The New York Times, 19 July 2012. WEb. 15 February 2017.

Children in Prison for Life. Youtube.com. National Geographic Channel, 23 May 2016. Web.

21

February 2017.

Harris, Kamala. Juvenile Justice in California. California Department of Justice. California

Department of Justice, 2015. Print. (1-113).

Jenkins, Jennifer. On Punishment and Teen Killers. Juvenile Justice Informations, 2 August

2011,

Expository Reading and Writing. Print. 2013.

Lundstrom, Marjie. Kids are Kids - Until they Commit Crimes. The California State

University.

The California State University. 2013. Print. (87-88).

Young Kids, Hard Time Directors Cut. Vimeo.com. Ken McCaster, 2016. Web. 25 February

2017.