Young people committing crimes should be treated the same as adults by the authorities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Contemporary crimilogists and human behaviorists suggest that juvenile crimes should be considered fit for punishments as the grown-ups. This essay shall examine this proposal, and shall elucidate my inclination in the following paragraphs.
There is a prominent lobby that vouches for the idea of punishing the young perpetrators in the same manner as others and propounds that the leniency towards the younger ones has encouraged the crime in small towns and cities as they are not scared of the courts anymore, taking the judicial precedents into consideration. A recent survey suggests that in countries like India, the juvenile criminal cases have increased manifolds owing to the laxity in proper statutes to deal with such activities.
Some commentators further propose that incorporating such a step is the need of the hour since many antisocial elements have started taking the advantage of this arrangement, and have begun to use minors to undertake unlawful endeavors. Moreover, an illegal act, whether it is vandalism, rioting or harming others, should invite punitive measures since these cause loss and immense pain to victims. Also, this will persuade parents to become more vigilant and start adopting methods to prevent their wards from going astray
Having said that, another school of thought argues that the young minds are bereft of maturity, lack requisite knowledge and guidance of what is lawful and what can be prejudicial to the public at large, such as using illegal weapons for self defense, and drink and drive cases, to name a few. Thus, they should be spared of punishments accorded to adults.
To recapitulate, controversies and disputes aside, I completely second the proposal to treat misdemeanors as they should be, irrespective of the age of the person involved in illegal activity. This will have an enduring impact on antisocial acts involving minors as their use as a medium to escape punitive consequences, will be discouraged.
