Crime
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I feel that we all at a very young age understand when we are doing something wrong. I know from personal experience that as a juvenile I would get what have been called “butterflies in my stomach” or in other words nervousness. I can remember back to an incident where me and my brothers where playing in the front yard and we were throwing a golf ball around. Then I threw it to high and my brother was not able to catch the ball and it went flying into the window. All I could do was run and hide, because I knew that I was in trouble. No one had told me that I was in trouble I just understood this, naturally. It was something that was in me. I dont really remember when I had this comprehension click, but it had.
So now back to the subject that this paper is on, juveniles. Now I understand that there are different crimes with different levels of seriousness, but when do we draw the line. If we as a society devalue the seriousness of a crime by saying they dont know what they are doing then we will see our justice system drop more then it already has. More and more juveniles are suffering because this excuse. The point is that we let juveniles off stating that they didnt know or understand what they were doing. Then when they reach adulthood they commit serious crimes. Then when we ask why they did this the reply is that they did not know what they were doing. We lock them up throw away the key and this is now justice. What we are doing is setting juveniles up to be failures as adults. They are allowed to do what they want when they are young, and then when they grow up they are now responsible for their actions.
I personally dont feel that as juveniles we should lock these people up and throw away the key, but I do feel that they need to be rehabilitated. Not with hard time but true counseling. This way they understand what they are doing, and now there is a change in them that tells them that there is a consequence for the actions that they have had. This in turns changes them as a person. They dont just change the feelings that they have or the emotions that they feel. Most juveniles have a though of “this will be fun or they will let me off”. I dont feel that juveniles are less aware of the crimes that they have committed. I mean either you know and understand what you are doing or you dont. You dont just have this though of “Im not sure if this is right or wrong”. You always have this feeling, some call it a conscious. The point being is that we all have the sense of right from wrong. Just as when I was a child, no one told me that breaking the window would get me into trouble; I just recognized and understood this. The seriousness of my golf ball incident as opposed to internet hacking or murder obviously do not compare. I realize that, but I also know that we as humans do realize that when we have done something wrong then we have done something wrong.
We need to understand that if you commit the crime then you need to be held responsible. If we show juveniles that they will get away with the crime they have committed, then they will continue to commit crimes. Then we have to hope that these offenders will just grow out of this life of lawbreaking. Now the problem is that we both know that very few grow out of this lifestyle. I guess if this is how we expect to cut down on juvenile crimes then we can expect no better than what we have had, but if there is going to be a change then we need to begin to hold these juveniles accountable. I
The age at which we should hold juveniles accountable as adults is a very grey area. Im not sure about this subject. I mean everybody is different, different minds, different environments and