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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper considers the question of whether or not juvenile offenders should be tried as adults, and argues that they should not. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVMinJst.rtf
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find it inappropriate. This paper examines question of whether minors should be tried as adults. Discussion The entire concept of juvenile justice in the United States, which is more than
100 years old, is founded on the belief that children do not have the "moral maturity of adults, and, as such, ... [are] not entirely responsible for their actions" (Hughes,
2002, p. 154). In the past, children were seen as "being quite different from adults," with a need to be nurtured and protected, rather than being held "completely responsible and
punished for their acts" (Hughes, 2002, p. 154). Earlier courts, as well as society, were sympathetic to the circumstances over which children had no control, but which influenced their development,
such as abuse, poverty and neglect (Hughes, 2002). When juveniles committed crimes, courts and society saw it as their duty to rehabilitate the child, not to punish him; they provided
services designed to help juvenile offenders "cope with negative social pressures in non-delinquent ways" (Hughes, 2002, p. 154). Children who received such counseling and other services were often turned from
their criminal ways, "not by threats of punishment, but by changing the childs thinking, goals, and values" (Hughes, 2002, p. 154). However, this approach to juvenile justice has changed from
the idea of rehabilitation to what Hughes calls our "lock em up culture" (2002, p. 154). As a society, we have become "preoccupied with punishment, and historical non-punitive rehabilitative notions
have not been realized" (Hughes, 2002, p. 154). Somewhere along the line weve lost sight of the original goal of the juvenile justice system, which was to reduce juvenile crime
and rehabilitate offenders, and refocused on punishment (Hughes, 2002, p. 154). The result of this change in thinking has been to try juveniles as adults, and then send them to
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