If the purpose of the juvenile court is to provide a separate system for punishment and rehabilitation, then the adult prison should be taken .
away from juveniles. When a juvenile is put into an adult facility, they are 500 percent more likely to be sexually abused than in a juvenile facility. Sexual abuse is by no means an effective way to rehabilitate juveniles from their crimes. This will only build up more anger and hate inside the juvenile that will lead them to future crime. The juvenile is also 200 percent more likely to be beaten in an adult prison by the staff, making the adult prison even less of a rehabilitator. A juvenile who is sexually and physically abused while in jail is going to be extremely psychologically impaired, especially the younger juveniles who have not developed mentally or physically, who have no means of self defense. Juvenile facilities also have a history of sexual and physical abuse, but not to the extreme of the adult prison. A sixteen year old named Shawn was given time in one of the most restrictive juvenile facilities in the United States and claimed that within the first week he was pressured into making his cell mate perform oral sex (Vasudevan 104). The situation is not good, but rape probably would have been the case for Shawn's first week if it were in an adult prison. The fact is, sexual and physical abuse is going to happen in prison, whether it is the adult or the juvenile prison. However, the rate and severity of those abuses is far higher in the adult prison.
When a juvenile is tried as an adult, they are aware of the crime the committed, and prior to committing that crime, they knew that crime was seriously and legally wrong. Since there is no certain age when a child learns right from wrong, the court system must give an adequate standard. The age of seven was given as this standard. In .
4.
reality, they are hardly ever any seven year olds being tried for their crimes as adults, because seven year olds do not commit crimes.
