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Aiden Finch
Mrs. Sanchez
ERWC Period 4
9 March 2017
By Any Means Necessary
As with todays society in America, our population has arisen over the past few years

which can create terrorism to become more common. With children, its a little bit of a grey area

on what theyre punishment should be by committing crimes such as murder, assault, etc. But, to

some people the choice is very clear. Any child over the age of 13 that commits a crime so

violent that it would get any average adult life in prison along with no chance of having parole,

should join the same fate because they are conscious of their decisions and are a danger to

society.
Most children under the age of 18 are capable of knowing what is right from wrong, and

should base their decisions off that. In an article titled On Punishment and Teen Killers,

Jennifer Jenkins explains to us that, As a high school teacher , I have worked lovingly with

teens all my life and I understand how hard it is to accept the reality a 16 or 17 year old is

capable of forming such requisite criminal intent (Jenkins 49). At this age, they know what they

are doing but they do it because they dont care about the consequences. In addition, Jenkins tells

us, He reported to a friend, who testified at his trial, about his thrill kill that he just wanted to

see what it would feel like to shoot someone (Jenkins 49). The kid knew exactly what he was

doing but his reasoning is way far from what a normal teenager should be thinking about.

Jenkins explains us another situation, He was not mentally disabled in fact he was quite

intelligent. But he got a rush out of breaking the law and ultimately started working on his other

plan for mass murder at a bank (Jenkins 49). This teenager was in fact intelligent, but he ended

up making a decision as violent as this. A controversial point is that the brain is not a developed

enough at that young but Jenkins responds, If brain development were the reason, then teens
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would kill at a roughly the same rates all over the world (Jenkins 49). This is a great point

because it would apply to all types of teenagers around the world but teen violence only really

seems to be a problem in the U.S. These young violent teens are not only endangering their loved

ones but to everyone around them.

Teenagers who commit these heinous crimes should be tried as an adult with no chance of

parole because they are a danger of society and should isolate appropriately due to them

potentially causing harm to people. In On Punishment and Teen Killers Jenkins notes that,

Many JLWOP offenders are repeat violent offenders and many have killed multiple people

(Jenkins 50). When given a second stab at society, no pun intended, they did not mesh with

society and hurt more innocent people in the process. These kinds of people should never have

the chance of going back into society. In an article written by DailyMail.com, they said,

Overall, 26.2% of offenders across all age groups went on to commit a new crime within a year,

a level which has remained stable in recent years (DailyMail.com). The offenders that had

already committed a crime went on to yet again commit another one. To support this evidence

further, In total 417,000 crimes were committed by those who had been released from jail or a

non-custodial punishment last year (DailyMail.com). These criminals obviously have the

natural intentions to do something bad which is why they should not rejoin society. Furthermore,

Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges commission finds that among juveniles whose cases were

closed in 2007, 1 in 5 recidivated within 2 years (Swift). These juveniles, who did not learn

their lesson the first time, should deserve the consequences of being in prison for such aggressive

behavior.
On the contrary, some people may disagree and say that it is inhumane to sentence kids to

life in prison without parole. For example, As a young adult growing up, these kids are

incapable of being held responsible for these actions (Steinberg). But, if we make kids think its
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ok to commit these crimes they will do it more often. But study shows that if we do start scaring

them, they found out that, The juvenile arrest rate for violent crime overall fell 36% from 1994-

1999 (Steinberg). In response to sentencing kids to prison without parole, the teenagers seemed

to be more wary about their decisions. Also, in an article written by Lundstrom, they say, So

what, then, to do about Lionel Tate a kid who apparently still doesnt understand that pile-

driving fellow inmates is not a good thing (Lundstrom). For the kids who are still not

understanding or have a mental disorder, they should never have the chance to harm anyone and

be locked up in prison due to their unpredictable behavior. Some people may say that is is

unmoral to give life sentences to minors. However, in an article written by Puffett, je explains,

Statistics released by the ministry of Justice showed that 72.3% of under 18s reoffended within

12 months of being released from custody for the year ending September 2011 (Puffett). For the

general safety of our public, it is in the best interest to keep these offenders from reoffending and

potentially cause harm to innocent people.


As a human being, it should be perfectly fine to sentence any juvenile who has committed

a serious crime to face prison in life without parole because they are conscious of their decisions

and are a threat to society. While others may disagree with me and say that this is immoral, we

need to think about the bigger picture and that is the general public. It is better to lock up one

human being if you have intention of keeping the offender out of arms reach to hurt people. By

any means necessary, these young adults should be taken responsible for their actions.

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