Juvenile justice and polys
 

I think one of the problems is the permissive attitude towards crime by juveniles.

So you bashed in 100 mailboxes with your friends. Slap on the wrist. But if you're an adult, you have a felony charge which prevents you from ever voting again, and makes it hard to get a job.

Just one example.

So these Juveniles think they can do anything. And then they don't realize when they are 18 that different rules now apply.

Oh my gosh, it's not cute anymore, it's not a prank anymore, it's a crime.

I guess some cultures and demographics don't understand this. They don't see why the same act at 17 is treated differently at 18.

Nor do I understand. A crime is a crime.

A 14 year old kid knows the difference between what's right and wrong. All this coddling by bleeding hearts only encourage criminal behavior.

I say throw the book at 'em early and we might see the overall behavior of juveniles change for the good.

Yeah, but a 14-year-old doesn't have the same capacity for exercising judgment as an adult does (or is expected to in our society).

I don't have a problem with treating juveniles differently. If you're doing juvenile acts as an adult, you need to have the book thrown at you.

Perhaps we as a society should expect a 14 year old to have a higher capacity for exercising judgment. It's not like they're complete idiots.

I did some stupid things as a teenager, but I still knew that what I was doing was wrong and my parents sure let me know that I knew better.

Teenagers still haven't developed the adult capacity for exercising good judgment that is expected as adults. I expect that's one of the reasons we don't let them vote or drink. This is the time in their lives that they're developing that capacity for judgment.

Teenagers are not complete idiots, and there is a juvenile justice system in place. I think your last sentence indicates where our society stands on this - we acknowledge that teenagers are still learning from their parents, and we expect the parents to participate in the correction process.

I guess we believe that there is still hope for juvenile delinquents to change their ways and become productive members of society. If you're still exercising such poor judgment as an adult, there's much less hope.

This is actually one of the courses I am taking this summer, Juvenile Justice. The short answer is the popular view is that juveniles are able to form the requisite mental intent to commit the crime, but they do not understand the severity of it. The 14 year old has only been through 7th grade and doesn't understand how society works, although he thinks he does.

Additionally, juveniles have a greater chance of rehabilitative behavior. That's why you see punishments like community service and probation. A soapbox example: God knew how young and impressionable a certain 14 year old would be...