Prosecuting Children As Adults

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate November 2001

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?Prosecuting children as adults results in many problems. Having children incarcerated in adult facilities is putting their safety at a very high risk. Also, children cannot comprehend on an adult level so it is difficult for them to be tried in adult criminal court. In prisons, with adults, children learn skills for a life time of crime.( ProQuest ) ?It is estimated that as many as 200,000 juvenile cases are tried in adult courts each year. Given our current social and political environment, this number is likely to increase dramatically.? ( Sontheimer, 196 ) Putting children in adult prisons risks their safety. Not only are the kids being psychologically abused, but physically abused as well. ( ProQuest, Editorial) Research shows that children in adult institutions are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted.( Blumstein, Internet ) An Ohio court judge decided to teach a fifteen year old girl a lesson by putting her in an adult jail; she was sexually assaulted on the fourth night.(

Fagan, Internet ) Is this a lesson that should be taught to a fifteen year old girl? Getting sexually assaulted and robbed of her innocence when she just needs to be told what is right and what is wrong? In Florida, a sixteen year old boy was raped and murdered by five adult prisoners. ( Fagan, Internet ) Judge Ronald Alvarez of West Palm Beach states ? If you apply common sense, we?re imposing punishment with the hope that punishment will make most of these kids who are already irresponsible feel responsible. But you can?t punish a lot of my kids because they?ve already been punished, battered, abused, abandoned, neglected? (Associated Press ). In come cases, children incarcerated in adult facilities are driven to commit suicide. Juveniles are 7.7 times more likely to...