Have you ever wonder when you were a little child if you murdered someone what would happen? However juvenile criminals are increasing everyday. There have been debates over whether sentencing juvenile criminals to life imprisonment even when the crime is not murder. The debate is divided over a thirteen year old rapist or seventeen-year-old murderer. The law says that juvenile courts usually hear cases involving persons between the ages of ten and eighteen and in some states, juveniles fourteen or older are charged with serious acts like murder, rape or armed robbery. They are handled in adult courts unless the judge transfers them to juvenile court. Juvenile criminals are not only treated as adults depending on the crime but also are going to rehabilitation and not learning any discipline. Kids should be tried as adults and sent to adult prison.

Juvenile criminals in the United States are increasing everyday. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that in 2007, there were 2.18 million arrests of persons under the age 18 (http://www.journalismcenter.org/issues/Juvenile-Criminals-and-Victims). Kids these days are getting more and more mature at a younger age, so they know exactly that crimes they commit will lead to serious consequences. When anyone can load a gun or any weapon, they know what they are doing. If you say teenagers do not know what crimes they committed is wrong, then why shouldn’t they be punished for their consequences? Jessica Wildes argues in her article, “Excuses should not be made for these offenders; lessening the consequences of their actions will not only undermine the victim and his or her family but also make it seem excusable after a short period of remorse”(1). It is pretty much saying if you less their consequences they will never learn that their actions were wrong.

Moreover, juvenile criminals should be treated as an adult. If we don’t deal with their actions, it can be horrendous for our country. One is acknowledged by Mike Hendricks saying, “Yet there is the outrage over trying kids as adults, then sending them to adult prison where they’re abused and come out more dangerous and damaged than when they went in?” (2) There are reasons why children under seventeen can't see rated R movies, or why a children can't go to the liquor store to buy a beer or order an alcoholic drinks, or why they can't vote and are limited to drive, it is because they are not fully developed and matured enough to understand these things, and that is why we have curfews. They are too young to understand what there actions they did were wrong. By sending them to adult prison will help teach them to understand their actions.

There should be no exceptions for juveniles in the law today. As Jessica Wildes says, “All crimes committed by juveniles should and must be treated in the same regard, if not to punish heinous acts, then to provide justice to the families of victims” (2). Therefore, kids should be treated as adults in courts and not for just being minors. These juvenile criminals are our future in the country. Do you think we want our society to be filled with delinquents? Society should stop finding excuses and execute justice. It is time to put those juveniles in adult prison.