Children

Children have been described as our future, our greatest resource, and our hope for a better tomorrow. For many Americans, though, children invoke fear. They represent violence, a segment of society lacking in selfcontrol and devoid of ethics and morals, and the failure of the family to instill traditional values: chief among them being the value of human life and respect for others (Brown).

Such views have led to calls for a change in the criminal justice system in order to increase the punishment possible for certain young offenders, especially those involved in violence. An analysis of the arguments on both sides is in order and shows that this trend is counterproductive.

The American juvenilejustice system was designed a century ago to reform kids found guilty of minor crimes, but more and more, the system has to cope with the increase in violent crimes committed by younger people. The response on the part of lawmakers has been largely to siphon the worst of these young people out of the juvenile system by lowering the age at which juveniles charged with serious crimes can be tried in adult courts, a trend that seems to increase around election time. The approach follows the view of Gil Garcetti, the District Attorney of Los Angeles, who states,

We need to throw out our entire juven

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been the number of school shootings, and especially the shooting at Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado. Because of such incidents, Congress is considering sweeping new legislation that threatens to put thousands of kids into adult jails, and this follows a trend that is already well underway at the state level. From 1992 to 1995, 40 states and the District of Columbia passed laws making it easier for juveniles to be tried as adults. In some cases, the state legislatures did so by lowering the juvenile cutoff age, in some cases to age 16 or 17, and in others to age 14. Because of these laws, an estimated 180,000 cases involving 16 or 17-yearolds were tried in criminal court as adults under state law in 1994. States also added to the list of crimes that would exclude a young offender from the juvenile system. Therefore, many youths are now automatically transferred to adult court for prosecution for violent crimes and drug offenses, and this is true in spite of the fact that federal studies show that older inmates tend to beat and rape teens serving in adult facilities. Some argue that this is simply the price society must pay to be safe, but in fact, statistics suggest that these policies are making the streets less sa
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Edward Humes, Tipper Gore, District Columbia, CON Brown, Brown Children, Los Angeles, PRO American, Defense Fund, Justice Pittsburghbased, Florida Minnesota, adult court, justice system, juvenile justice, adult courts, juvenile justice system, juvenile system, juveniles adult, juvenile crime, mental health, criminal court, juvenile offenders, tried adult courts, youth crime adult, transferred adult court, juveniles adult court,
Approximate Word count = 1857
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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