Why Juveniles Should Not Be Charged as Adults Law Essay

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Why Juveniles Should Not Be Charged as Adults
Introduction
During the 1700s, there were no differential laws in the United States criminal justice system for juveniles and adults (Scialabba np). This meant that children as young as seven years old were charged and sentenced in adult criminal courts. As there were no distinctions to be made between age, sex, and mental illness offenders, jail and prison populations were mixed with adult criminals and juveniles causing many problems. The realization of issues of mixing young and adult offenders led to the establishment of the New York House of Refuge by the Society for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency in 1825 (Scialabba np). The idea of establishing juvenile institutions was to educate and rehabilitate young offenders and directly address the root cause of juvenile delinquency: a lack of moral standards and education. However, according to Scialabba (np), the 1970s and 1980s witnessed increased violent crimes from young offenders and the government became “tough on crime.” Consequently, sweeping reforms in many states made it seamless for juveniles to be charged in adult courts. The laws were also more punitive and inappropriate for juvenile offenders. In a broad perspective, Daugherty (np) observes that the laws and systems that have permitted juveniles to be tried in adult criminal justice systems epitomize a departure from the conventional understanding of the juvenile justice, which is to serve a child’s best interests. An increasing amount of research now shows the failures of the adult criminal justice system in meeting the demands of juvenile offenders beginning from the trial stage to incarceration and offender re-entry (Daugherty np). Juveniles should not be charged as adults as this approach encourages recidivism, rearrests and fails to address deterrence; exposes juveniles to poor environments with adult criminals; and the tactic of being “tough on crime” further introduces new challenges.
Young offenders should not be charged as adults as this approach has failed its intended objectives of deterring the increasing juvenile violent crimes, recidivism, and rearrests. The outburst of laws allowing more young offenders to be prosecuted in adult criminal justice systems other than juvenile courts was originally intended to discourage increasing numbers of violent crimes from young offenders. To establish the effectiveness of this approach, it is critical to evaluate what happens to these juveniles going through the adult criminal justice system to ascertain whether they are deterred from committing future crimes. In 2010, a report by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law showed that there is little to no deterrence when juveniles are charged in adult courts (Scialabba np). Instead, many states that participated in the study showed increased recidivism with young offenders charged in adult courts and released from prisons being rearrested 82% of the time. Interestingly, their adult counterparts were only rearrested 16% less of the time indicating a problem with trying juveniles in adult courts (Scialabba np). A report published by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found a connection between counter deterrence of transfer law and charging juveniles in adult courts. In the report, there were higher rates of recidivism for young offenders prosecuted in adult courts compared to juveniles who were tried in juvenile courts. Another important observation was that juveniles tried in adult courts could recidivate faster and more recurrently than those charged in juvenile courts. According to Scialabba (np), the high rates of recidivism could be attributed to a lack of rehabilitative resources in the adult criminal justice system. Therefore, young offenders need to be charged in juvenile courts to receive the treatment, resources, and training available to them in the juvenile criminal justice system.
The poor environment of mixing adult criminals with young offenders in adult prisons and jails denies juveniles the benefits of the services available in juvenile institutions. Juvenile institutions have programs and resources that are specifically designed for the development of young offenders. In this regard, juveniles charged in the adult criminal ju...