Young people committing crimes should be treated the same as adults by the authorities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Young people committing crimes should be treated the same as adults by the authorities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Nowadays,  unlawful acts involving juveniles are witnessing a spike; however, these perpetrators walk scott free unlike the grown up. This has persuaded a proposal that they should be awarded similar penalties like their older counterparts, whereas many dissent. I shall critically scrutinise this matter, and draw a plausible conclusion.

A school of thought professes that an infringement should be penalized uniformly, regardless of the age, for this can send a clear message to all the youngsters, preventing them potentially from engaging in criminal/antisocial  activities. Similarly, in cases of violent  illegal acts, such as murder, or assault, the severity should be the  primary criteria and not the  age of the offender. To corroborate, a study by the University College of Dublin, revealed that felonies undertaken by those under eighteen have surged due to lack of sufficient law, so a universal system of punishments has been proposed in Ireland to help quell such incidents. Moreover,  holding them accountable will promote fairness, and also prevent youngsters from being used as a tool to commit unlawful acts. 

Nevertheless, the critics throw up their arms in horror, and suggest that youngsters should not be subjected to such punitive measures. Their brains are still developing, limiting their ability to make correct decisions. Since they lack maturity, they might be unable to handle the trauma, eventually affecting  their mental health drastically, exposing them to issues like depression and anxiety, and instead encouraging them to indulge in dangerous unlawful endeavors. 

To conclude, disputes aside, I think that instances of law breaking should be meted out similar treatment to all antisocial elements, regardless of their age; youngsters partaking in offences should not be spared. It might sound cruel, but mitigating incidence of law breaking by minors is only possible with such severe steps. 

Young people committing crimes should be treated the same as adults by the authorities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

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.