What do you think the punishment should be for teenagers who commit criminal crimes?

Question

I am sideing that teenagers aged 12- 17 should be treated like adults when they commit serious crimes?

Answer 1

criminal crimes? any one who commits a crime is a criminal fool, and they should be treated as an adult because they should know what they are doing

Answer 2

Depends on the age and severity of the crime.

Answer 3

depends wot it is. I'm a teen myself so it all depends what they done and what there circumstances are.

Answer 4

jail and probation

Answer 5

I dont know I am not an adult.

Answer 6

Criminal Crimes :) hehehuh.... If you commit  a crime that makes you a criminal..technically. What you mean problem is major crimes right...in that case I think that the frame of mind and severity of the crime matters heavily on the punishment....I can;t believe I'm saying this....but the system we have in place already takes pretty good care of this debated issue.

Answer 7

well OK it depends the type of crime the teen has commited and their age. for an example a teen has stole something from the store, it would be up to the judge, but i think that u should give every 1 a chance, so there crime would be like a couple of months in juvenile or community service or b on probation

Answer 8

Personally, I think it depends on the crime. Presumably that is why we have different punishments so that the court can try to make the punishment "fit" the crime. In sentencing youths, the courts have to be especially mindful that we humans make mistakes, but we make possibly more serious mistakes when we are young through immaturity than we do when we are older. Therefore, do we not have to bear in mind that teenagers will change and  mature and possibly grow out of their behaviour? Should we not give them the chance to rehabilitate/redeem themselves or should we make them continue to pay for their crimes for the rest of their lives? Again, in my opinion, we thankfully as a society in the UK have a system that tries to treat youths differently from adults to give them a chance to change. Unfortunately, the reality is that as a society we seem to be moving more and more towards a compromise of the two positions - we treat them like adults in that we send more youths to custody than almost any other western country, but we treat them differently in procedure and give them a chance to put the past behind them when they turn 18!

If we realised how we treat children in custody and how small and scared many of them are outside 'the gang' would we still want to be so strict in the way we treat children?

Oops didn't mean to get on my soapbox. Sorry

Answer 9

"Criminal crimes?"  What other kind is there??

Answer 10

the same as an adult.

they should learn from mistakes and hopefully it was not a bad crime.

Answer 11

It depends on the seriousness of the crime.

If someone was physically injured the punishment should be the same as it is for an adult.

If someone was killed the penalty should be death or life without parole.

Answer 12

I at times think that they should be punished like adults, but then  think that they're so youg and to s***w up your life at such a young age is a terrible thing to do, so id say juvy till 18 or 21 with education still available.

Answer 13

instead of just locking up teens or giving asbos they should be made to do work throughout the city- like americans do with their inmates- like rundown ares- cleaning them up- painting huses or shoppin areas- and also they should be taught a routine like the army- disipline is what they need. For minor crimes community service- but should be stepped up so its not for just in charity shops etc.... they need more structure

Answer 14

it depends on the age of the teenager, 13 and 18 seem like a big difference to me