Juvenile offenders & life sentances

[thalassa]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Then the child should never thought of killing another person in the first place.

A three year old doesn't know what "killing" IS. They still think when something is "dead" that you can put new batteries in it. To a three year old, "killing" is something that happens when they drop a toy and it stops working until someone fixes it.

Putting a child that doesn't understand that they have done something wrong in prison pretty much is monstrous.

[Ula]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

"Knowing between right and wrong" is nothing but a cheap phrase that does not even begin to address the actual. You are still saying we should charge people as adults who's brains aren't even developed fully. Their are bodies of scientific evidence that link the underdeveloped brain of a teenager to crime, impulse, control, poor judgment, and peer pressure. They should be treated like an adult? Really?

Yes. At 16 I think any kid knows enough about right and wrong when it comes to serious crimes. Some kids do not deserve a fourth, fifth or six chance.

[R. Eugene Laughlin]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Yes. At 16 I think any kid knows enough about right and wrong when it comes to serious crimes. Some kids do not deserve a fourth, fifth or six chance.

Everyone is a little different from the hypothetical average person. Some people are very, very different; and that is by comparison to age-matched peers for younger people, and then to the general public thereafter. Where the right cut-off is for "young" vs. everyone else is a moving target and depends a lot on public sentiments. The science of neural and behavioral maturation is becoming more a factor these days. It's still difficult to place for any one individual. So there are legal concepts and proceedings to sort that out: competence, culpability, etc. It really has to be done on a case-by-case basis, with expert witnesses and such.

[Bartmanhomer]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Victim families need justice and I think a child should be sentence to life.

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Thelassa you're the one who brought this controversial topic up. I don't see it as monstrous. Don't blame it on the judge and see it as he/she as a bad guy behind sentencing the child to life.

[habbalah]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Neither "sociopath" nor "psychopath" are actual clinical diagnosis. Both are clinically diagnosed as "anti-social personality disorder."

In popular usage (which is the only place the words have meaning) a sociopath is a non-violent psychopath, while a psychopath is a violent sociopath.

Both are the result of either genetic brain structure, or some form of brain trauma, and that brain trauma can be the result of extreme abuse in childhood during brain formation - even abuse that does not directly, physically damage the brain (which, by the way, means that you can't count on the parents/caregivers identifying traits).

If it is curable, the cure (with present technology) must be done before the brain stops developing.



When not curable, it possible to mitigate the effects either via environment, or via training. Not all people with the identified brain abnormalities are easily identified as socio/psychopath - the distinction is usually made between successful and non-successful, the successful ones leading pretty normal lives, the non-successful ones are generally the ones who end up in treatment or prison.

At any rate - early diagnosis and treatment is best scenario - the later in life it is diagnosed, the more difficult it becomes to treat.

You're right, they are both diagnosed under the same heading now, but sociopathy and psychopathy describe different behaviors and patterns, which is why I used them separately. I should have been more correct. Thank you for pointing it out.

[Gleb]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Victim families need justice and I think a child should be sentence to life.

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Thelassa you're the one who brought this controversial topic up. I don't see it as monstrous. Don't blame it on the judge and see it as he/she as a bad guy behind sentencing the child to life.

BMH, like many of the users said here, children don't understand the meaning of killing. Like ThePaganMafia said, for them it's just refilling a battery in a toy. When a child/young teen (not a 16 year old and up) kills someone, it's called an accident. What's done is done. If you sentence them to life in jail, they might get out of there with emotional disorders and even worse - psychopaths and REAL killers. Because they didn't understand the meaning of what they did. And nobody explained them.

[ThePaganMafia]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Victim families need justice and I think a child should be sentence to life.

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Thelassa you're the one who brought this controversial topic up. I don't see it as monstrous. Don't blame it on the judge and see it as he/she as a bad guy behind sentencing the child to life.

So, you are advocating for life sentences for children as a means of letting the victim's families have some sort of feeling of justice? The feeling of justice of watching another child's life destroyed? That isn't justice. That is revenge and that is not how the system is supposed to work.

[EndlessCravings]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

You're right, they are both diagnosed under the same heading now, but sociopathy and psychopathy describe different behaviors and patterns, which is why I used them separately. I should have been more correct. Thank you for pointing it out.

They're almost the same exact thing. Psychopathy you're born with, sociopathy is developed

[Briton]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Agree with PM. Vengeance is not synonymous with justice. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

One has to ask why some who commit crimes and others do not. Our sense that doing harmful stuff to people shouldn't be done overrides any gain or gratification we may get out of it, more or less. It would be much more productive if we can find ways to convince and re-educate criminals that social cohesion is more important and find out why they took the risk on the first place. They should be treated like human beings because, like it or not, they are still human beings. It is FAR more advantageous to reintegrate criminals than shut them away, although this is a bitter pill to swallow. Shutting then away for life, especially children, is not really justice at all. Does the death penalty prove anything? Only that of you commit murder - and are caught - that the state is allowed to kill, not you. Does it reduce murder rates? Not in the slightest. US homicide rates are still higher than the UK despite death penalties across the continent. What does it create? It creates people with nothing to lose. That is a very dangerous thing. You may want to see blood spilled for a murder but it doesn't bring the victim back and doesn't actually aid society in any meaningful way. A life sentence is, after all, just a very drawn out death sentence.

[habbalah]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

They're almost the same exact thing. Psychopathy you're born with, sociopathy is developed

From what research I've done, sociopathy is also something you're born with, and is in fact passed genetically, but I very well could be wrong. I'll read up more on it.

[EndlessCravings]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

From what research I've done, sociopathy is also something you're born with, and is in fact passed genetically, but I very well could be wrong. I'll read up more on it.

I read it somewhere online. Some say psychopaths are more manic. I don't necessarily to believe it to be true, but it's all on a spectrum.

[Bartmanhomer]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

BMH, like many of the users said here, children don't understand the meaning of killing. Like ThePaganMafia said, for them it's just refilling a battery in a toy. When a child/young teen (not a 16 year old and up) kills someone, it's called an accident. What's done is done. If you sentence them to life in jail, they might get out of there with emotional disorders and even worse - psychopaths and REAL killers. Because they didn't understand the meaning of what they did. And nobody explained them.

Well i'm sorry if I don't agree on it. I just think that a child should get some sort of punishment for such a serious crime such as murder.

[Gleb]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Well i'm sorry if I don't agree on it. I just think that a child should get some sort of punishment for such a serious crime such as murder.

Then entrust the system to find a solution to this matter. Life in jail isn't a suitable one. Only people who work in the field are capable of deciding the suitable punishment for every case. NOBODY else.

[DragonsFriend]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Bart,
Ask yourself this question: Can a three year old understand death? Can that three year old plan to kill? Can that three year old know what the consequences are of killing?
Three year olds don't even understand what living is. At three years old most kids don't plan anything - that is why they need constant attention. Most three year olds don't understand the consequences of running around without their cloths on in cold weather.
In order for a death to be a murder it has to be planned, and executed with malice (a kind of hateful intention) and three year olds are not capable of either of those concepts.

[Bartmanhomer]

Re: Juvenile offenders & life sentances

Bart,
Ask yourself this question: Can a three year old understand death? Can that three year old plan to kill? Can that three year old know what the consequences are of killing?
Three year olds don't even understand what living is. At three years old most kids don't plan anything - that is why they need constant attention. Most three year olds don't understand the consequences of running around without their cloths on in cold weather.
In order for a death to be a murder it has to be planned, and executed with malice (a kind of hateful intention) and three year olds are not capable of either of those concepts.

When I was three years old. I understand that murder was wrong. I was a pretty smart three year old back then. And I'm that some 3-year-old can understand murder is wrong at all levels.