After reading an article about the sentencing of minors who have committed murder, a few thoughts ran through my head. Why would a crime of murder be considered less if it were committed when the criminal was less than 18 years old?
I am having trouble understanding how someone can justify a murder simply because it was done by a teenager. Apparently the attitude is, "oh they can't control their behavior like an adult can." Tell that to the victims families. Obviously we are not talking about a toddler accidentally grabbing daddy's gun and pulling the trigger. I am talking about anyone who is able to make a rational decision.
Obviously, most humans make a lot of "mistakes" when they are in their teenage years. It's part of growing up and thinking you are invincible. At the same time, we should all know (at least I hope) right from wrong. When I was a teenager, of course I took risks. I also knew there was a consequence to my action. I knew what could happen when laws were broken etc. I chose not to commit any serious crimes because I knew it wasn't right.
It seems courts and judges are having a hard time sentencing minors to life sentences for murder cases. I think when it comes to first degree (pre-meditated) murder, that individual has crossed a line in which only severe punishment by the law should follow. It would be silly to say, "they were just being high schooler's." Taking a life would be making an "adult" decision and therefore should always be handled with adult laws. It is actually quite scary what "teenagers" are capable of. The Dnepropetrovsk maniacs comes to mind. They are three teenagers from Russia who grew up in privileged households and one summer decided to murder 20-30 victims and videotape it simply because they were bored. I don't think putting them in Juve for a year and giving them probation would teach them a lesson.
I completely agree with your opinion on the inability of the courts to charge minors to the full extent for murder. Is it really true that just because you are 18 years old that you all of a sudden have the maturity level to control their behavior? I don't remember being any more of an adult at 18 than I was at 16. The question arises of what would be a proper age limit to enforce life sentencing? I don't know that their is one. I believe every case of murder should be treated individually. The law that acts as a safety blanket for anyone under the age of 18 is ludicrous. Take the case of the group of teens in Queens, NY that ordered Chinese food delivery and beat the delivery man to death just for a free meal. Does the law really expect us to believe that these kids didn’t know what they were doing when they, no doubtfully, planned this, called in the order, waited for the food to get to their house and then beat this man to death with bricks? That’s a pretty far-fetched version of a child’s impulsive behavior. We were all teenagers at one point and have made mistakes. Some of us sneak our parents car out at night or skip school. How many of us go out in the world and kill? It is my belief that any child that is capable of murder at a young age is just the huge, glaring red flag that this individual will grow up to be a deeply disturbed and dangerous adult.
ReplyDeletePatrick Mendez’s blog post titled “Murder = Murder” has a very valid stance. I agree with his argument that most young murderers under the age of 18 are rational human beings who need to take responsibility for their action. Teenagers are old enough to realize the consequences for their actions and are able to make sound decisions. Some just simply choose not to. When I think of this on a more personal level, I would want a teenager to suffer the full punishment for murdering a member of my family. Until you break the issue down into terms that you can relate to, it’s difficult to think that such a young person should endure such a grim fate.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do partially disagree with Patrick’s blunt position on this topic. Minors may be rational and know right from wrong, but they do not have the complete competency that adults do. In fact, the human brain is not fully developed until age 25. I took a psychology course over the summer which informed me about this less commonly known fact. Until this age, human behavior is not as consistent in its decision making, rationality, and ability to think about the long-term effects of decisions. Because of this, sentencing an adult criminal with a long lifetime of experience to lethal injection seems more salient than doing the same to a high school student who just barely got a driver’s license.
I have a rather mixed stance on this issue. My belief is that it would really depend on the particular crime and the competency of the individual who did the wrongdoing. We shouldn’t let the young murderer get off easy, but also shouldn’t dismiss the fact that they are devoid of precious years of learning experience.