Circumstances when juveniles should be justified to be tried as adults
Since the establishment of the first juvenile court, the argument has been that juveniles should be transferred to adult courts if they cannot be rehabilitated in juvenile courts. The transfer of juvenile offenders from juvenile courts to adult courts, however, should be applied in limited situations. For the youth to retain their rights to rehabilitation, the judges presiding over juvenile courts must use their discretion sparingly during the hearings. This is because sending juveniles to adult courts is not, in most circumstances, the sole solution to juvenile crimes (Bergman, Paul, and Berman 35).
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Studies have shown that juveniles who would have been rehabilitated but who end in adult jails end up as hardcore criminals upon release. Having said that, however, it is not agreeable that juveniles should strictly exempted from the adult criminal justice system. There should be a mechanism to allow upper courts to determine whether the juveniles who are convicted should be tried and prosecuted as adults.
When juveniles are tried as adults, the criminal justice system provides that they be subjected to the due process rather than obtain a blanket amnesty that borders on paternalistic treatment set aside for juvenile delinquency (Bergman, Paul, and Berman 135). The solution to juvenile crimes does not end with policies aimed at reforming the offenders. For many years, offenders have had to cause even more harm after serving their probation. Studies have also shown that juvenile repeat offenders are likely to commit serious crimes because of the leniency of the juvenile court system and paternalistic treatment of the crimes.
The restorative justice system goes further to involve the victims, the society and the offender in the search for justice. Unlike the juvenile system, which focuses on the offender, adult criminal justice system seeks to approach the issue from a holistic perspective (Bergman, Paul, and Berman 57). It proposes a strategy in which juvenile justice systems are supported while ensuring that the community gets involved in the process of healing the wounds of the victims (Russel 374). In addition, allowing juvenile offenders to be tried as adults means that the society appreciate the fact that victims of the crimes cannot be ignored even for a moment (Jung, Ahn-Redding, Heather and Meredith 356)
Recommendations
According to the American Jail Association, juveniles who’ve been tried and convicted as adults should be housed separately from adult convicts unless it is proven that the detention facility has special facilities to house juveniles (Russel 436). A jail term may not be sufficient to help juvenile offenders. There is a need to develop a corresponding corrective program to help juvenile convicts. The purpose of the criminal and juvenile justice system is to integrate punishment and correctional services.
This means that while punishment is welcome, it should not be used to condemn the youth to rot in jail without providing them with a second moment in life. Any criminal justice should follow a win-win formula in which the state punishes while the offender gains from the correctional services while serving their term in jail. Where a juvenile offender is found to pose serious risk to the community, it is recommended that he or she is detained in a juvenile detention center equipped with correctional, educational, and support services (Jung, Ahn-Redding, Heather and Meredith 355).
To ensure that the youth are treated with utmost fairness and within the limits of the law, there should be a defined minimum age at which a juvenile should be waived. Experts in psychology are of the view that juveniles aged 15 years and below do not have the necessary mental competency to help them acknowledge the degree of their crimes and the magnitude of the consequences they are likely to face. For this reason, it is would not be reasonable to subject youth under the age of 15 years to adult criminal system. When deciding who should be waived under the adult criminal justice system, juvenile judges should assess all the facts before deciding whether the juvenile should be rehabilitated or jailed (Jung, Ahn-Redding, Heather and Meredith 356).
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However, amenability or waiver should not ignore the severity of the offense, but should be considered against several other factors. Judges should be careful to evaluate the history o