Nonfiction Article Reading Response

Reading Response to Rethinking Juvenile Justice

            In the article from Upfront Magazine, many states are rethinking the old trend of treating juvenile offenders the same way as adult criminals. Many juvenile justice experts think that the old system of punishment is too harsh on juvenile offenders. After reading the article, I agree with them; punishing juvenile offenders the same as adults is too harsh.

            If a juvenile offender is sent to jail with other adults, they can be immediately freaked out when locked up with hardened criminals. Some of these young offenders are punished for acts that were unintentional. The article mentions scientific research that shows what a person does at our age 13 or 14, is not a good indication of what kind of adult that child will become. In the article, Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia states, “Ninety percent of teen offenders do not become adult criminals.” If this is true, stupid acts done by teen offenders are not likely to be repeated as an adult.

            As a teenager, I’ve witnessed my peers do questionable things, such as pranks or dare one another, yet I know they have another side to them that is the complete opposite. Many adults often tell children about their childhoods, and all the stupid things they’ve done and sometimes regret. However, many of the adults who are open to speaking about these events are the same adults we look up to and spend time with. The same adults are now taking care of children. There’s a big difference in maturity between the adult to who takes care of another person, and children who aren’t responsible for the care of others. We usually need to look upon others to take care of us.  Every adult was once a child, and most were less mature and responsible then they might be.

            As we all know, nobody wants to go to jail, because jail is supposed to be scary and harsh a place to stay away from. When we think of jail, we usually imagine crazy adults who might have killed someone on purpose, but not teenagers with the same bad intentions. Being a young human with fears, you wouldn’t want jail as a part of your childhood experience. All punishments given to adults are supposed to “teach them a harsh lesson” that they have to pay for the consequences. However seeing children being treated the same terrible way makes you wonder why they have to feel the same pain as an adult who is supposed to have planned a crime knowing it was wrong, whereas a child might not have intended to hurt someone else on purpose. Should children be punished for something they did possibly not want to happen? The article also said that adolescents have more potential to correct their behavior than adults.

            By changing these laws nationwide, I think this will make our system of punishment fairer towards juvenile offenders in terms of being given what they deserve. Punishing someone isn’t wrong if they purposely did something bad, but if the crime was unintentional, why should they be treated the same way? It was the right decision for the Supreme Court to declare the death penalty unconstitutional for juvenile offenders in 2005 and in 2012, to bar mandatory life sentences without parole for anyone committing a crime before turning 18.