Legal Issues

     One of the most sensitive and complex areas of the criminal justice system is the aspect concerning juvenile delinquency. The occurrence of juvenile violence in the society is tearing the world apart one day at a time. These children are supposed to be in the highest peak of their lives and it is a heartbreaking fact to find out that they are responsible for some of the most violent crimes ever perpetuated in history. Due to the tenderness of their age, it is difficult to provide the appropriate measures necessary to straighten their path. The rate of juvenile violence in the country has reached an alarming rate and this news about juvenile violence made the government aware of the veracity of its impact not only in the future of these children and but also in the safety of the public. As a solution to this growing problem, some states lowered their age of responsibility from juveniles to adults, some courts created minimum sentences, some states awarded life imprisonment while some are even considering to give death penalty as a punishment to juveniles (Tate, Reppucci and Mulvey). It is extremely hard to reconcile the fact that these minors should be tried as adults because whether or the law punishes them as such, the criminal justice system can never deny the fact that in they are minors. They may be adults in the eyes of the law but they are still children in the eyes of everybody else.

    The Eight Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that excessive bail and fines must not be imposed and that no cruel and unusual punishment must be inflicted. This Constitutional provision is drafted by the framers in order to ensure that the punishment given to the offenders would be proportionate to the crimes that they have committed. This measure of proportionality takes into consideration the elements of gravity and penalty of the offense and the way other jurisdiction deals with circumstances like this ( Death Penalty ). The system for handling cases concerning juveniles are sui generis, or in other words, it has a class of its own. The aim of the law in dealing with juvenile delinquencies is geared towards rehabilitation and not punishment this is the main rationale why this class is separated from the rest. The letter that killeth must be distinguished from the spirit that giveth life. If these young people will be punished as adults, the very spirit of the law which is rehabilitation for the juveniles will be destroyed along with the very person who is sentenced to spend their lives behind bars.

    Deciding whether or not juveniles must be tried as adults is crucial not only for the sake of the juvenile offender but also for the sake of the criminal justice system. It can be observed that in the dawn of the 20th century, America started favoring the act of lowering the age of criminal responsibility. One of the highlights of this issue deals with the age in which these offenders are eligible for transfer in the juvenile courts. In some states today, teenagers as young as fourteen years old may be tried and convicted as adults. As such, it is significant for the court to take careful consideration of the maturity of these children along with their psychiatric and psychological abilities before finalizing their decision. Rehabilitation of the youth has been the primary priority for the establishment of juvenile courts since its founding but through the passage of time, this very importance is dwindling away (Heilbrun  Leheny).

    According to statistics, an estimate of 260,000 minor children were transferred to adult court in the year 1996. The depressing reality is that this number does not symbolize the success of the criminal justice system because the research illustrates the juvenile crime rates in the states where they try these youth as adults are not lower than the states that dont. There are many critics that argue that the system of transferring juveniles to adult courts and giving them harsher punishments have adverse effects of increasing the criminal activity because at the end of the day, the short-term benefits resulting from it may come with an even bigger consequence like high recidivism rates  (Fagan). This is not to say that the government must close their eyes and let the youth offenders get away with the crimes that they did. What juvenile advocates are trying to ask is that the these youth must not be punished as adults. They must be treated and rehabilitated as juveniles.

    The very foundation of of juvenile justice system will be taken away if these teenagers will be tried as adults. No matter how severe their offenses are, one must not lose sight of the fact that they are still children and as such, they deserve to have a second chance in making their life better. Punishing youth as adults is tantamount to depriving these children the chance to straighten their paths. There is no more degrading punishment than depriving any individual of his right to live another life to shape a better future and in the light of the juveniles, this punishment is equivalent to taking ones life away. Life does not belong to any of us, and what one did not give, one does not have a right to take away.