Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults

Should Juveniles Be Tried As Adults

Introduction

Whether youths should be treated the same as adults for purposes of punishment is a very controversial issue. Juveniles have been treated differently from adults since the early common law period. The law early on recognized that juveniles were not as mentally or emotionally developed as adults and thus should be judged differently. This led to the development of then parens patriae doctrine, in which the state was seen as a quasi-parent charged with protecting children as well as holding them accountable for their actions. It also led to the development of the infancy ...