Do the Crime Pay the Time

Christina Burke-Gonzalez

English 1160

Professor Jennifer Kozar

Argumentative Research Paper

11.26.2014

Do the Crime Pay the Time

More and more every day that the 6 o’clock news comes on, we hear about a new crime that has been committed. The majority of the crimes that are being done we come to find out are because of troubled juveniles, whether it is gang related, drug related, or simply a misunderstanding gone wrong. When it comes to a member of the family of these juveniles, sure they are not going to want their son, daughter, grandchild, etc. to be put in prison for life. Society however, sees this juvenile as taking someone’s life before it was their time to go, or even vandalizing a property that ones’ worked hard to make their own. Once the crime is done they are then seen as getting off with only two years of probation, and no justice for the others. Taking into consideration of circumstances and tests, if a juvenile can simply kill someone out of spite, or rob a store because they think it’s cool, they can surely be tried as an adult in the courtroom. If they are competent enough to do the crime, then they are competent enough to deal with the consequence of their actions.

Juvenile violence is a more serious and complex situation to deal with in today’s society and it just continues to grow. There has been a recent decline in juvenile crime over recent years, however research says that many urban areas are covered in homicides and other violence involving these juveniles. It is said that tougher sentencing laws and a greater focus on parental responsibility are the best ways to fight against continued violence. If these juveniles are actually held responsible for their actions, they may start realizing that violence is not the way to solve any kind of problem. An article by Billitteri talked about Derrion Albert being a 16-year-old honor student from Chicago. He was simply walking to the bus stop and before he knew it, he was in the...