There were approximately 2,180,500 juvenile arrests in the United States during 2007 according to the FBI Arrest Statistics. On average this number relatively has stayed the same until now (2011.) 97,070 of those total arrests were violent crimes. Violent crimes include murder (not manslaughter), forcible rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. When a person under the age of 18 commits a crime should the punishment be the same as a 34 year-old's? A 51 year-old's? Should the law only look at the crime and not the characteristics of the person who committed it? Is a crime a crime? Or does your view on a version of punishment change when you see for example the 13 year old receiving it? These are the questions that have not been answered because who really has the right to draw the line at a certain age? Believe it or not in 2007 1,350 murders were committed by underage people and 12,130 murders were committed by adults. The question we must answer is what age is it right to sentence life in jail to.Who deserves adult-like punishment and who does not?
Questions:
- Do juvenile punishments differ depending on which state you live in?
- What are the most famous court cases concerning this topic?
- What is the biological evidence that supports NOT sentencing the underage to life imprisonment? (brain development, etc.)
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