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In recent years, some people insist that teenagers who
commited severe crimes should be considered like older criminals. The essay
will discuss the merits and demerits of this idea, and then give my own
perspective in the conclusion.
Firstly, one of the advantages is that it can be a great way
to prevent other teenagers from commiting same crimes. In particular, there are
several youngsters who misuse the lower levels of punishment to the youth
rather than that to the old. The strong treatment can be a warn for them not to
commit same serious crimes. Secondly, young criminals who get punished like
adults are less likely to commit same crimes in the future. This is because they
can deeply realize the results of the commitment by being treated in the same
way as adults. Therefore, it is clear that it can play an important role in
forcing teenagers not to be criminals.
Despite these arguments mentioned above, there are some
drawbacks too. To begin with, it would deprive young criminals of more
opportunities to learn and follow the social rules. Many experts believe that
teenagers should have more chances to be mature than adults, since they had
less time to learn morality. In addition, the experience of being treated like
serious criminals can play a significant role of a stigma for teenagers when they become
adults. It would lower their self-esteem so that they may give up adapting to
the society after the punishment. Thus, the strict treatment would have
negative effects on the society in a long term perspective.
In conclusion, although both opinions are reasonable, I
think that the disadvantages prevail over the advantages. This is because a society should provide young people with opportunities to become better in
order to improve the overall social morality. |