Teens are committing horrific, horrendous, crimes and some are getting away with a light punishment, and some are getting the right punishment they deserve. These older kids know better than to mutilate a kid then lay him out on the railroad tracks. They know the laws and know when they are breaking them.
I believe teens should be tried as adults in some cases. If it is a just plain cruel crime then they should be given an adult consequence, but it also depends on how old they are. I don’t think we should be giving 10 year olds adult consequences, but if they are older than that they know better and they know what they’re doing when they commit a crime. Teens also may grow up around rough people that teach them how to do bad things. So unfortunately as Jessica Wilde says in her article “A lack of human morals cannot be treated or cured in rehabilitation centers” (1). When kids get sent to juvenile centers all they do is go through rehab and go through the motions and don’t learn anything. I have unfortunately experienced these types of kids, and they take it as a big joke and don’t change it because they’re not getting a real, lesson teaching consequence.
Courts need to stop trying kids as adults in the courts of law. Kids are not adults until the age of 18 according to law. Hendricks states in his paper “…you have to be at least 18 to server on a jury” (1). This explains you have to be an adult to serve on a jury, but not to be tried as an adult. He also goes on to say “They don’t think things out like we do” (Hendricks 1). I, being a kid, know that we know it is wrong to murder or commit a crime. I think teens can think things out like when Jessica Wilde tell us about how the group of kids mutilated someone, then put them on the railroad to get rid of the body. Thinking things out has nothing to do with it; teens know not to commit a crime no matter how big it is. Teens know what they are doing when they commit a crime, but sometimes they just don’t think about the consequences.