After one week break, in 8th August 2022, 1 people participated and 1 people finished writing. There are our essays.
Participant-Jay
Topic
Young people who commit crimes should be treated the same as adults by the authorities.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Essay
It is argued that young criminals should be held accountable for their actions as adults. Personally, I disagree with this because juveniles are immature, and it is not reasonable to treat young and mature offenders equally.
On the one hand, teens are shown not to have sufficient intellectual and moral capacity to understand the consequences of their misconduct. They are still minors, which means they are developmentally less responsible and more impulsive. In other words, it is unfair to them to be treated like adults. When they are tried in criminal court, they are not considered adults for other purposes, such as voting and drinking. And, when given a second chance, these juvenile offenders can have the opportunity to rehabilitate and learn valuable lessons successfully. As people, they are still active work in progress.
On the other hand, funneling youth into the adult system has no benefit and is very harmful. Most young offenders do not become adult criminals. However, that may change when they are punished as adults. They have significantly worse education and employment prospects, and carry a lifelong, potentially debilitating stigma. These can cause them to lose hope in future lives, have no urge to make progress and become even more aggravated. As a result, teens tried as adults may commit more crimes after being released. Moreover, if teens and adults are sent to the same prison, young people may be bullied, misled, and learn more criminal behavior in harsh environments.
In conclusion, I oppose treating young people as adults when it comes to crime because of the detrimental effects on their natural growth and psychological well-being.