Making Excuses for Murderers
Some argue that a person who put an innocent baby on a railroad track to die should be given a second chance because of their age. I think not. That just means they have longer to take and destroy more precious lives. Because of one’s age, the jury might become biased and prejudice, leading up to a consequence not nearly severe enough for the crime.
It is unthinkable and unimaginable for a couple of boys to steal a little baby and put it on a railroad track to get run over. Why should someone’s punishment for mutilating a baby be a few years in a rehabilitation center? Rehabilitation centers can help many disturbed people, but I’m afraid even the best psychiatrist in the world can’t fix the morals of these ruthless criminals. For this reason I believe kids should be tried as adults in the court of law. Many argue that age has a major role when charging sick-minded criminals. I have to refute that opinion.
Why should any human being be given an excuse to take someone’s life? If the court does not send these young criminals to jail when they commit a serious crime they are “lessening the consequences of their actions… undermining the victim and his or her family…. and also making it seem excusable after a short period of remorse” (Wilde 1). By lessening their consequences it’s sending a message to the victim’s family and friends stating the victim didn’t have much significance and it wasn’t a big deal that they were murdered. Kids are committing violent and sadistic crimes when they are only fifteen years old and who knows what they will be capable of when they reach adulthood. These individuals have something wrong and “a lack of human morals cannot be treated or cured in rehabilitation centers” (Wilde 1). Many kids who go into rehab are set free way too soon.
They have no temptations in rehab, and therefore are just acting good so they’ll be put out on the streets again where they are given another opportunity to commit a crime just as bad, if not worse. I support Wilde’s belief that “situations like this should never arise in the first place” (1). Why do courts only focus on trying to prevent the situation from happening again, that still does not change the fact that they committed a serious and deadly crime in the first place? I absolutely do not corroborate with people that insist on kids being “exempt from being tried in a criminal trial purely because of their age” (Wilde 1). Even though “their brains are wired differently and they don’t think things out the way we do,” they know the difference between right and wrong and if they can’t make the right decision they should be punished. Especially if their bad decision includes killing someone.
Some people try and reaffirm that these kids have seen violence their whole life, and they don’t know any different. My opinion about this argument is that it should only make them see why they shouldn’t use violence, because they have seen how much pain it has caused them and their loved one’s. Shouldn’t they be trying to stop that incident from happening again, not the one’s making the situation reoccur? These people also try and emphasize on the fact that when kids are put in adult prisons they are “abused and come out more dangerous than when they went in” (Hendricks 2). The problem with that argument is, they should never come out in the first place! It simply doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are, or where you came from, there is no excuse to commit a horrendous crime and not be punished; if jail is the punishment for adults it should be the same for kids. Kids are just like dogs, they may seem cute and innocent on the outside but with bad morals they are capable of horrendous unthinkable actions. So I suggest we give the punishment necessary for the crime committed without being biased.
If this does not happen we are slowly developing an unsafe place to live our lives. Next time a life is taken because a kid was simply bored ask yourself one thing: What if that was my family member or friend that was killed? We have to understand no matter what a person’s age is if they break the law they should be punished and put away so they can’t harm or destroy anyone else.
