Argumentative Essay Example on Minors Should Not Be Prosecuted as Adults

Over the years, we have used a great deal of methods to deal out punishment, such as being beheaded to being boiled in oil, to being hung, strung and quartered in the medieval eras, typically for high treason. In the 1900s, more humane ways of execution were provided. It would usually consist of the electric chair, a lethal injection, or a firing squad. However, those would usually be for heavy, psychotic crimes, if the offender was prosecuted for a death sentence. Usually, criminals would be placed in prison for a select amount of time, usually in years, reflecting on the severity of their misdeeds. Most of the offenders currently residing in jail are adults, as per usual. However, there have been cases in which a juvenile, or minor under the age of 18, has been placed in an adult prison instead of a youth facility. In fact, there are approximately 9,100 youth housed in adult facilities. Have you ever wondered whether that’s the best decision, or if this will impact the juveniles, or negatively affect our justice system? This paper will prove that minors should not be prosecuted as adults, since placing them in adult prisons can allow them to be exposed to violence or trauma, and can impact their mental health significantly, while further damaging their chances at rehabilitation. 

First and foremost, prosecuting youth as adults has bad outcomes for the youth. To start, doing so means placing them in adult prisons, which usually affects them negatively. Many youth placed in adult facilities are more susceptible to violence, such as physical and sexual abuse. For example, according to a study done in 2020, “nearly 200,000 youth enter the adult criminal-justice system each year, most for non-violent crimes. On any given day, 10,000 juveniles are housed in adult prisons and jails.” It is highly common for youth to experience increased risk of sexual abuse, injury, and death they face when imprisoned alongside adults, usually at the hands of other inmates and prison staff. The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission stated that “More than other group of incarcerated persons, youth incarcerated with adults are probably at the highest risk of sexual abuse.” The National Inmate Survey indicates that “1.8% of 16-17 year olds imprisoned with adults report being sexually abused by other inmates.” What’s even worse is that fewer than 1 in 10 of the juveniles that have been sexually or physically abused reported their abuse. Their physical build and mental stability also contribute to the huge disadvantage they have compared to adult inmates. 

In addition, housing youth in adult prisons affects them so badly that it’s fairly common for them to commit suicide, or turn to unhealthly coping mechanisms, such as drug use, drinking, or self-harm. Suicide rates for minors prosecuted as adults are extremely high, and most juveniles experience significant trauma and/or mental health issues. To exemplify, given the lack of services and guarenteed safety, it’s hardly suprising yet sad that juveniles housed in adult prisons are 35 times more likely to commit suicide than juveniles housed apart from adults, and twice as likely compared to inmates from any other age group. Teenagers who get treated as hardened criminals while they’re still high-school-aged have been scientifically proven to be more likely to engage in violence when they get released from prison than those who don’t get shoved in adult facilities. 

Secondly, juveniles should have a chance to rehabilitate themselves, as opposed to throwing away their lives in the adult system. Many argue that not all young offenders end up as full-fledged criminals, therefore throwing them in jail with adult offenders would take away any hope of rehabilitation, as studies have shown that minors placed in adult prisons frequently emerge worse than before, both physically and mentally. To start, juveniles tend to be more impulsive and emotional, and their brain development isn’t stable enough for them to always make responsible decisions. To demonstrate, The law recognizes that children are different from adults, as they’re more vulnerable, emotional, and impulsive. According to a psychology professor, “Adolescent decision making is characterized by emotional and cognitive immaturity, intense peer pressure and heightened attitude toward risk. Their inability to consistently make responsible decisions makes them less blameworthy than adults.” It’s scientifically proven that the prefrontal cortex of an adolescent’s brain is undeveloped, and is the key difference between their brains and an adults. For example, the cortex controls our abilities to delay and reflect, so the lack of development limits the amount of time juveniles will think before they act. The cortex also takes all options into account, contemplates risks and consequences, and provides social intelligence. The lack of a fully developed prefrontal cortex in adolescents means that juveniles are extremely impulsive, have difficulty being empathetic and are susceptible to peer pressure, and for them, without the ability to fully understand the risks and consequences of their actions, means that sensational seeking is at an all-time high at mid-adolescence. It’s also confirmed by professionals that impulsivity, sensation seeking, and susceptibility to peer influence declines with age, while time spent problem solving and gratification delays increase with age. Clearly, this changes assumptions about juveniles, proving that they are different from adults, and therefore their behaviour needs to be judged in the context of their development. Juveniles should not be deprived of their chance to be rehabilitated and go on with their life, simply due to normal adolescent impulsiveness, so they should not be placed in an adult facility in the first place.

Furthermore, juvenile detention facilities provide better educational and psychological benefits for youth to prevent them from committing more crimes and getting arrested once more, while adult facilities completely disregard that. For instance, most adult prisons don’t have the best counseling and education resources that juvenile ones do, if at all. Juvenile facilities are there to assist the youth, designed to prevent kids from being incarcerated again, while adult prisons have completely given up on that aspiration. Instead, it’s stated that “staff at adult prisons just hope for order even if it comes at the hands of prison gangs and ethnic or regional cliques.” Meanwhile, juvenile centers can provide the youth with therapy, education, and safety, which can help rehabilitate them and give them a chance to turn over a new leaf. This option is unavailable at adult prisons, and even worse, juveniles can develop unsavory associates that will encourage them to commit more crimes after they get out. Hence, detention centers specifically created for juveniles are there to assist the youth, and to help them shape a better future, while adult facilities have the opposite impact on them. Putting youth with adult offenders can completely ruin any chances they had on rehabilitation, while if they were placed in juvie, they could have been helped with the resources provided. Obviously, this contributes to why juveniles should not be prosecuted as adults. 

In conclusion, this paper has proven that minors should not be prosecuted as adults, because doing so provides bad outcomes for the youth in question, and throws away any chance the youth had before at rehabilitation. While exceptions can be made, depending on the context, the statistics have clearly shown that there are many factors contributing to why juveniles being placed in adult facilities is a one-way trip to self destruction. Hopefully, this paper has educated you on the undiscussed truth of the youth justice system, and keep it in mind when you see another one of these cases on the news.