Juvenile Justice
...logues. This story was titled “The Maximum Security Adolescent” and the author groups juveniles into three main groups. The children under 7 who committed crimes were presumed not to be responsible for them and could not be punished. Those between ages 7-14 were generally thought to lack responsibility for their actions. These children under the age of 14 usually get into counseling or sent to a juvenile detention center to help correct their actions. And finally, between the ages 14-21, the juveniles were presumed capable of forming criminal intent and were therefore punishable (Talbot). Many states allow only children 14 and older to be prosecuted as adults. However, some states have set younger limits – 10 in Vermont and Kansas – or no lower limit at all (Talbot). My personal opinion is that the age limit should be 13 because at that age, I think that everyone knows, or at least should have understanding of, the difference between right and wrong and therefore should understand the consequences of a heinous crime. Those under the age of 13 may not be completely responsible for their actions and therefore, detention centers and counseling is the best correctional help to steer them in the right direction. Most states have statutory provisions that allow the expungement of juvenile records once the juvenile turns a certain age (Funk). To me, there is nothing wrong with the expungement of records for certain crimes of a smaller, possibly less violent crime. It is when the juvenile crimes are more serious, such as rape and murder, that it becomes an issue. If adults were to commit the latter crimes, they have no chance of ever forgetting them due to sex offender notices and long term jail imprisonment. It is not fair for a young adult to be able to commit such a serious crime and have it expunged and an adult have to be reminded of it on their record and everywhere they go. Juveniles should be just as responsible for their crimes as an older offender. A study tracing the criminal careers of one thousand juvenile boys found that 73.2% of those who could be located had been officially catalogued as repeat offenders within 10 years of their first appearance in juvenile courts (Funk). This study helps to prove my point that our juvenile justice system is weak. If it were stronger and doing its job of “helping” juveniles in the first place, this statistic may not ever even qualify to be in the book. If the system were stronger, juveniles may learn their lesson before it is too late and they commit such crimes time and time again. Extensive FBI studies estimate that 74.7% of all murderers had arrests for violent felonies of at least 6 years. Once again, this proves that if the juvenile was taken care of while under the watchful eye of our juvenile system, I do not think that the numbers of repeat offenders would be quite as high. One thing that has happened in the past that some may find to be positive was that in 1992, all but 10 states amended their laws to make it easier to prosecute some juveniles as adults (Collier). Arizona is just one of the states where prosecutors can move a juvenile case into adult court at their own di...