Juveniles as adults

[Lil Red]

should juveniles be tried as adults in courts of law? most often, i've seen this happen when a young person (around 10-12 years old) gets tried as adult for murdering someone. what do you think and why?

[Sojourner]

Depends on the kid and the crime, but generally not. The law is pretty limited when it comes to kids being tried as adults. In most cases, it's not a good thing -- they learn more bad habits in prison than they knew going in.

In some cases, though, it's in the public's best interest to have someone who's genuinely a threat locked up for a long time.

I covered a case once where a 10-year-old boy shot his father. The prosecutor moved for a waiver to adult court, but it wasn't granted in the end. To see the kid, you wonder why the prosecutor ever thought he SHOULD be tried as an adult. Skinny blond kid, waifish. He'd have been eaten alive in prison. Instead he's in a juvenile residential treatment facility. A sad, sad story.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Those two boys who shot their father in Florida were tried as adults, weren't they?

Fr. Peter, my friend who used to run Boys Town, was asking the state to send them to his facility, but he was refused.

I'm just curious if they were or not...

[homeschoolmom]

Case by case, but generally no.

[Socrates]

I say give em the chair! :

[toledo_jesus]

[quote name='Lil Red' date='Jan 4 2006, 01:52 PM']should juveniles be tried as adults in courts of law? most often, i've seen this happen when a young person (around 10-12 years old) gets tried as adult for murdering someone.  what do you think and why?
[right][snapback]845815[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
Never. If we have a juvenile system then it should apply to who we designate as a juvenile. No exceptions, even for murder.