There is a bitter battle over how to combat the Nation's fastest growing crime problem; juvenile offenders. While overall crime statistics in America's largest cities have dropped, there is one category where it has skyrocketed: homicides committed by youths seventeen and under. Experts believe twenty-five percent of all murders committed by 2005 will be committed by juveniles. Although many Americans believe that juveniles who kill, rape, and rob should be treated differently than adult offenders; most stand behind the reasons that putting juveniles in prison does not necessarily teach them right from wrong and how the offenders are handled will determine what kind of person they grow up to be. I feel we should lower the age a juvenile can be tried as an adult from fifteen to thirteen because it keeps repeated offenders off the streets and it sets an example for other offenders. To many hard core offenders are arrested, held and released time after time.
Many critics believe that children under the age of fifteen cannot be tried as an adult unless a competency hearing occurs. However there is supporting evidence that many youths do commit crimes and they do understand the difference between right and wrong. "More than one in six youths sent to detention are younger then fifteen and 5.1 percent of youths arrested last year were charged with a violent offense." Two particular cases, the first in St. Lewis, one nine year old and two eleven year old boys were charged with the rape of an eight year old girl in an overgrown field. The second happened in September. Eight Tacoma youths, ranging from ages eleven to nineteen were arrested in the beating to death of a pedestrian. Two of them ages sixteen and nineteen will be tried as adults. Another brutal murder was committed in Moses Lake, where a high school student was charged with using a gun to kill a teacher and two students. A third classmate was injured.
