Juveniles Case

A crime is a crime no matter who commits it. Juvenile courts are established because children cannot be tried in the same manner as an adult. You will find that children who commit a crime are very young. Many believe that it is impossible for them to have the same mental abilities as an adult. According to many, children are unable to plan and execute a crime and to understand the consequences.

According to our society children began to mature and understand important concepts like society and expectations when they are adolescents. Our society has leaded us to believe that adolescents are trying to deal with society and their own inner battles of peer pressure.

In our society it is known that parents must teach children values and morals. It is the parent's responsibilities to make children understand the danger of things and the consequences. What happens when the parents do teach their children these things and still they go out there and commit a crime?

In our society today juvenile's crime has skyrocketed. Violent crime receives harsher punishments and it is starting to raise question should the juveniles be treated as an adults. I believe if they are treated as adults they will understand the consequences of their actions but also deter them from any further crimes. To me it will automatically lower the crime rate in our society and make it a better place. When there are harsher punishments for children who commit crimes others will learn from their mistakes and it will deter them from doing such things.

At the age of sixteen, teens are able to drive. At the age of eighteen teens are able to smoke. At the age of twenty-one teens are able to drink. So when do we consider them adults?

Which leads us to the development of juvenile courts? In the article Pity the child (Sobre, 2010) is informing us the steps that were taken to create the juvenile delinquency system. Sobie (2010) explains that the first juvenile court was established in the state of ILLINOIS in the year of 1899 and the purpose of these courts were to rehabilitate children who were engaged in criminal activities or whose parents bad neglected abused or abandoned them. Once this was established almost every state had replicated this act. The juvenile delinquency age limitation is not absolute according to Sobie (2010). By 1927 twenty-eight of the forty-eight states rose the jurisdictional age to eighteen, while the remaining twenty states raised their age limitation to seventeen. New York is still at the age of sixteen. The article (sobie, 2010) informs us that the only time the age is exempt is if a child commits a very violent offense. Most states according to Sobie (2010) can transfer a juvenile from juvenile court to adult courts when they have committed a violent felony.

This article describes that in 1846 New York did not allow imprisonment of sixteen and seventeen year old children. Sobie (2010) states due to this in 1877 the first child neglect statues were created. Then in 1903 New York set up children's court parts, but Sobie (2010) stated they failed. Due to this failure in 1922 New York created the New York State Children's Court for countries outside of New York City for the purpose to protect the child. He goes on to explain that Family Courts were established in 1962 as part of the 1961 Constitutional Convention. The purpose of family court were to protect, treat and commitment of minors who are in need of authority.

The straw that broke the camel's back was in 1978 with the case of Willie Bosket. Willie Bosket dreamed to become a police officer but at the age of fifteen on March 19, 1978 he shot dead Noel Perez on the New York City subway during an attempted robbery. Eight days later he shot dead another man, Moises Perez in an attempt of robbery. Bosket was tried and convicted of the murders' in New York City Family court; he was sentenced to five years in a state youth facility. His short sentence caused a huge public outcry. Which lead the New York State Legislature to pass Juvenile Offender Act of 1978. Under this act children as young as thirteen years old could be tried in an adult court for crimes such as murder, and receive the