First of all, I personally believe that legislation in order to try kids as adults and apply the death penalty to them should be avoided. Because of the March 24 shootings in Jonesboro, Texas has proposed legislation to try 10-year-olds as adults and apply the death penalty to 11-year-olds. Since 1970 this same state has been cutting back the expenses on education by at least 25 per cent and upped funding for incarceration by 3.2 billion dollars (www.about.com, 2003). I think that putting more money in education instead of

In conclusion it is clear from my point of view that children between ten and eighteen years shouldn’t be tried as adults as it is happening in England and the United States.

But on the other hand, how can we be sure these children understand the consequences of their actions as adults do? It could be argued, at least in this case, that they were playing and they didn’t realize what they were doing, otherwise why would they have been boasting like that? We can guess what would happen to children with this mentality if they were placed with adult inmates. It seems to me that they would become more violent adults, as Jeffrey Fagan says in his report.

In my opinion children under eighteen shouldn’t stand trial in an adult court. In England (www.about.com, 2001) two ten year- old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson beat James Bulger to death. They were arrested and stood trial in an adult court. Their “tariff” was set at eight years. I believe this shouldn’t have happened. First, there should be other kind of court for children: formed by specialists in children’s behaviour and problems apart from judges and jury. Second, the UK’s “age of responsibility”, the age at which a child’s crime can be treated as other than a juvenile offence is ten. I doubt that a ten year-old be conscious of what he is doing.

Some topics in this essay:
El Mundo, Jonesboro Texas, England Spain, James Bulger, Justice Magazine, Correction Centre, Child Abuse, California Mexico, Jeffrey Fagan, Columbine School, wwwaboutcom 2003, children ten, adult inmates, eighteen shouldn’t, el mundo, children ten eighteen, ten eighteen, money invested, children act adults, fagan report, children violent, adults apply death, trial adult, eighteen shouldn’t tried, ten eighteen shouldn’t,