Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults?

Throughout adolescence many physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes occur. This time is a transition from childhood to adulthood. Due to these developmental changes, juveniles can participate in risky activities such as crime (Wendy, 2002). Debate on whether juveniles should be tried as adults has been a growing discussion. This debate is largely centered around the cognitive and moral competencies of juveniles. Many people in favor of prosecuting teens as adults believe a crime is a crime and those who participate in criminal activity must do the time. On the other hand, many people believe that teens should not be prosecuted as adults because they have not fully developed yet and do not have the same rights as adults.
Simply declaring
The capacity to control impulses and determine the consequences of actions also occurs. Many teens start making decisions for themselves and learn how to regulate their emotions (Stanford's Children Health, 2017). As juveniles learn to self-regulate and become adults, they make poor choices and mistakes. Adults however have gone through this stage of development. They have developed the ability to control impulses and think logically (Siegel M.D., 2014). If juveniles were to be treated as adults they would have a disadvantage because they are still learning to calculate risks and self-regulate. This is why juveniles do not have the right to vote, drink, and smoke. They are not fully developed
This is the region of the brain that allows impulse control, executive functioning, planning, and organizing (Stanford's Children Health, 2017). Excluding serious crimes, juvenile crimes may be more impulsive acts whereas adults may act more on revenge. This could be because of the juvenile’s underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. This is not to say that some juveniles intentionally plan and think out crimes. When a juvenile’s actions are serious and deliberate, there could be just cause for the case to be transferred to adult court. As of 2017, juvenile cases get transferred to the criminal justice system through a process called a waiver. This is when a judge waives the protections that juvenile court provides and assigns it to the adult court. This is the most common type of transfer mechanism (Michon, 2017). Statutory exclusion and concurrent jurisdiction are two other methods to transfer a juvenile to the adult court. In some states, if an offender meets a certain minimum age requirement and commits a particular serious or violent crime that offender automatically gets transferred to the criminal court. This is called statutory exclusion. Concurrent jurisdiction is a mechanism that some states use that involves a juvenile being placed both under the juvenile court and the adult court concurrently. This occurs when juveniles meet certain predetermined stipulations regarding the case (Tobias, 2014). The states’ varying