Do you have what it takes to be tried as an adult? The author of Juvenile Criminals Must Be Tried As Adults, Jessica Wilde, explains that minors who commit murder should be tried as adults. Wilde uses two examples of minors who commit murder. First is eleven year-old Jordan Brown who killed his father’s pregnant girlfriend because he was jealous. Second are two ten-year-old boys who mutilated and murdered a two-year-old girl and later tied her to a train track so that they could cover up the evidence. Wilde not only thinks that minors who commit murdered should be tried as adults but also tries to put the reader in the mother of the murdered child’s shoes.
Minors who commit murder should not be tried as an adult because they do not think about their consequences. Wilde states “The obvious problem in trying minors as minors and not treating them in the same way for the same crimes is that rehabilitation will not fix these young criminals” (Wilde 1). Wilde explains that rehabilitation is a bad alternative to treating a minor who has committed murder. The reason why a minor should not be tried as an adult can explained in many way, but if repeating several times to get the reason into someone’s head then so be it. One should think that rehabilitation is the most effective way to instill the correct
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actions for a minor to renter everyday life. Wilde also explains “A lack of morals cannot be treated or cured in rehabilitation centers…. Morals are Inherent from birth” (Wilde 1).
Think about it. Without rehabilitation, minors cannot rehabilitate for their previous actions. If you take a minor and put them in a prison then they are likely to come out worse then when they were put into it. Minors should not be tried as adults or put into an adult corrections facility because if adults are able to drink, drive, and smoke then so should minors. It is only fair, is it not? Minors are not adults, and that is the main reason why they should not be tried as an adult. You will not tell an adult to go and sit in a corner, and neither will you tell a minor to go to prison.
So if you are an adult you will feel uncomfortable being tried as a minor and put into a juvenile detention center. If you’re a minor you will feel the same being tried as an adult and put into prison. So if you are a judge and your minor who you still see as your little boy or girl is in front of you. Then think twice before you make a bigger mistake then your child has made.