CJ202 is a juvenile too too young to be charged with murder

Too Young

Too Young to Get Charged with Murder?

Name

CJ202

Date

Professor

Too Young to Get Charged with Murder?

Juveniles are treated different in society when they commit what are considered delinquent acts. The goal of the criminal justice system is to punish adults that commit crimes but the goal of the juvenile justice system is deter juveniles from committing further delinquent acts. The juvenile justice system has a mission to change the delinquent behavior of the juvenile in order to ensure they grow up to become productive members of society instead of adult criminals. As time has gone on the goal of the juvenile justice system has not changed but instead it has become far more common for juveniles that commit adult crimes to be charged and tried as an adult.

The juvenile justice system is a network of agencies that deal with juveniles whose conduct has come in conflict with the law (Stamps, 2007). In some cases, however, the court decides the act of the juvenile is serious enough that is requires they be tried as an adult for their crime. The result of this has been controversy over whether or not juveniles should be tried as adults. In the case of Evan Savoie and Jake Eakin, two twelve year old boys, beat and stabbed their thirteen year old friend, Craig Sorger, to death and was arrested for is murder. Despite the arrests the two boys maintain they are innocent of the crime.

Juveniles are developmentally different from adults but despite their youth they do have the capability to tell right from wrong. When a juvenile commits a murder they are very clear that murder is wrong but the difference lies in whether or not the juvenile can understand the long term consequences of their actions. When a juvenile commits murder the crime is so serious that simply sending them to the juvenile justice system for a slap on the wrist does not seem just. As a result juveniles as young as eight have been arrested for murder but the youngest offender were ten when he was tried and convicted of killing his neighbor.

In this case there were two juveniles arrested for the crime. When questioned by police the boys initially denied knowing what happened to Craig even though they had come by his house earlier to ask him to come out and play. The juveniles later changed their story and claimed Craig fell out of a tree and when he would not wake up the boys got scared. Despite the young age of the two juveniles they both attempted to hide evidence in the form of bloody clothes and shoes. While prosecutors are pushing to have the juveniles tried as adults they do not currently have a motive for the crime plus the boys are extremely young.

The two boys were interviewed by forensic psychologists and were found to be normal and average adolescent boys. The forensic psychologist Johnson found the boys had no past criminal history and did not discover any major behavioral or emotional problems (Leung, 2005). In fact the two boys are fairly popular in school and the younger of the two boys admires his friend for being a class clown. Neither boy has spoken out against the other and remains loyal to their co defendant. The forensic psychologists said they were polite boys from good families that committed an unexplainable violent act.

Even though the forensic psychologist believes the juveniles are guilty of the crime he does not believe they should be tried as adults. Johnson found that their act of violence was probably committed out of curiosity and would not happen again. Despite this recommendation the two boys will in fact be tried as adults. The judge ruled their act is dangerous and violent and chances of rehabilitation in the juvenile justice system would be unlikely. Because the boys had never committed a previous crime and did not have any major emotional or behavioral problems they did stand a good chance of being rehabilitated. The problem the majority of society would not agree with this viewpoint and would instead prefer the child murderers were charged and tried as adults.

When juveniles are tried as adults they do not get an opportunity to change their criminal behavior in order to become more productive members of society. Instead the juvenile that is tried as an adult becomes an adult criminal. They do not get a chance to be rehabilitated and in an attempt to survive the adult prison environment will become hardened criminals. When a juvenile is tried as an adult no one benefits but in some cases the juvenile just poses to large of a criminal threat. In the case of the two twelve year old boys their crime is bad but there is hope they can be rehabilitated. The problem is once the judge decided they should be tried as adults any hope of rehabilitation ended. Instead the boys will spend the next 25-40 years in adult prisons.

References

Leung, R. (2005). Boys Next Door. CBS News. Retrieved June 11, 2013 from

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/22/60ii/main710981.shtml

Stamps, B. (2007). Ten Reason Why Juveniles Should not be Tried or Sentenced as Adults.

Retrieved June 11, 2013 from http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org/10reasonswhy.html