The document discusses whether minors who commit violent crimes should be tried as adults. It notes that trying minors as adults could negatively influence them in regular prisons and make them more violent. However, minors can be held accountable for their violent actions. The document then discusses the history of expanding rules to try more juveniles as adults since the 1990s. It also discusses the risks of incarcerating juveniles with adults, such as higher rates of sexual assault. The document concludes by arguing that specialized correctional facilities are needed for juvenile criminals.

1. Running head: MENACE TO SOCIETY
1
MENACE TO SOCIETY 5
Menace to Society
ENG215
11/09/2016
Should minors who commit violent crimes be
tried as adults that is the question. I believe minors who commit
violent crimes should be tried as adults but incarcerated in
specific prisons. The reason is that regular prisons would
negatively influence minors and may make them even more
violent. These minors unless they are mentally handicapped can
be held accountable for violent crimes. Violent crimes have

2. serious consequences. In a violent crime a minor can be
considered evil. Through violence a minor can become a menace
to society because he or she can take a person’s life and there is
no coming back from that. We live in a society that is civilized
and if kids grow up thinking they can get away with murder we
can have chaos.
Since the 1990s, when virtually every state expanded
the rules under which juvenile offenders could be charged as
adults. ABC (2010) reports “The juvenile justice system has
been reinvented in the image of the adult criminal justice
system," Robert Schwartz, co-founder of the Juvenile Law
Center, and Thomas Grisso, a clinical psychologist at the
University of Massachusetts Medical School, wrote in a
summary for their book, "Youth on Trial”. In the words of one
get-tough advocate, juvenile offenders are criminals who
happen to be young, not children who happen to be criminal.
The Supreme Court handed down a decision that will soften
sentences against some juveniles. The highest court ruled that
juvenile offenders who haven't been convicted of murder cannot
be sentenced to life in prison without any chance of parole. The
United States was the only country before this ruling that did
not have a such a law as reported by ABC (2010). 10,000
children are housed in adult jails and prisons on any given day
in America.
Jailing children with adults puts young
people at great risk. Children are five times more likely to be
sexually assaulted in adult prisons than in juvenile facilities as
described by EJI (2016). School violence caught attention in the
United States in the 1990’s with school shootings like the one
on April 20, 1999 in Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colorado and become the deadliest high school shooting in U.S.
history. After these shooting incidents took place they started a
national search about the roots of youth violence that many

3. years of inner-city violence did not attract CNN (2016). The
United States has a high rate of violent crime specially youth
homicide compared to other nations. Some people believe it’s
because the U.S. has a lenient criminal justice system and
juvenile justice system that causes high crime rates or that
crime and violence are the result of cultural decline and moral
poverty but the American justice system is one of the toughest
in the world.
The cultural and moral condition of American
families and communities is important in understanding crime.
These conditions are strongly affected by social and economic
lifestyles. These social conditions are the factors that
sociological criminologists point to as the roots of violence.
(Currie 1998) reported that there is now a lot of evidence that
inequality, extreme poverty, and social exclusion are very
important in shaping a society's experience of violent crime.
They affect everything extremely because of their hardcore
impact on the close-in relationships of family and community.
Civilization is built on families working together so this is key
to keeping society on a positive or negative path of life.
Inequality creates hate and hate creates anger and a cycle of
violence can comes from that. To survive some young criminals
steal, drug deal and kill.
When we look at the research on poverty and
economic inequality, we find that the United States has a high
poverty rate and the biggest gap between the rich and the poor
of any of the developed nations (Kerbo 1996). Reports of the
Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), an international survey of
poverty, inequality, and government spending in industrial
countries (Rainwater and Smeeding 1995) shows that a rich
society like the United States has a lot of inequality and is less
committed to providing a decent life for the poor compared to
other developed nations. Youth growing up in these
environment without the proper guidance of their parents can
become lost to the street culture which in America can involve

4. gangs like the bloods and crips. Gang violence can be deadly
because nowadays kids are quick to shoot instead of having fist
fights.
The problem is with putting children in
regular jails because children are up to 36 times more likely to
commit suicide after being housed in an adult jail or prison than
children incarcerated in juvenile facilities. Many children
prosecuted as adults suffer from untreated mental illness.
Unlike adults with mental illness, children have very limited
experience managing their disabilities, anxieties, fear, and
trauma. They often act impulsively, recklessly, and
irresponsibly. In an adult jail or prison this behavior results in
more aggressive punishment which can worsen a child’s mental
health problems as reported by EJI.ORG (2016). Many kids
suffer from the effects of growing up in a troubled home along
with economic problems. While other kids suffer from genetic
mental health problems or mental health problems from drug
and alcohol abuse. I believe for there to be true criminal
juvenile justice there should be the right correctional
institutions available for these young criminals that may spend
the rest of their lives locked away.
REFERENCES
Children in Adult Prisons; EJI; 2016
http://eji.org/children-prison/children-adult-prisons
Elliott Currie 1998. Crime and Punishment in America. New
York: Metropolitan Books
Juvenile Justice: Too Young for Life in Prison?; ABC; 2010
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/life-prison-juvenile-offenders-
adult-courts/story?id=11129594
Kerbo, Harold R. 1996. Social Stratification and Inequality.
Class Conflict in Historical and Comparative Perspective. 3d

5. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill
Mother of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold gives first TV
interview; CNN; 2016
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/12/us/sue-klebold-diane-sawyer-
interview/index.html
Rainwater, Lee and Timothy M. Smeeding. 1995. Doing Poorly:
The Real Income ofAmerican Children in a Comparative
Perspective. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University, Maxwell
School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
ENG 215 – Appendix A: Peer Review Feedback Form 1
Appendix A: Peer Review Feedback Form 1
Reviewer’s Name: _
Date: __
Writer’s Assigned #: _
Course:____
Section:__
Assignment 3: Persuasive Paper Part 1: A Problem Exists
Peer reviews should provide feedback to a peer on the criteria
expected in the paper. Follow these instructions:
1) Receive a classmate’s paper from your professor (in class if
on-ground; by e-mail if online).
2) Copy the Peer Review Feedback Form from the Appendix.
3) Comment on all criteria, noting strengths and / or areas for
improvement on the feedback form.
4) Provide completed Peer Review Feedback Form and
classmate’s paper to your professor.
Note: On-ground students should submit the feedback form and
paper to the professor during the class meeting in which the

6. paper is reviewed; online students should submit the feedback
form and paper to the professor via the Assignment Tab in the
course shell.
Criteria
+ Strengths
Comments < Areas for Improvement
1. Provide an appropriate title and an interesting opening
paragraph to appeal to your stated audience (appeal with logic,
ethics, or emotion).
2. Include a defensible, relevant thesis statement in the first
paragraph. (With revised thesis statement.)
3. Describe the history and status of the issue and provide an
overview of the problem(s) that need to be addressed. This
should be one or two (1-2) paragraphs.
4. Explain the first problem (economic, social, political,
environmental, complexity, inequity, ethical/moral, etc.) and
provide support for your claims. This should be one or two (1-
2) paragraphs.
5. Explain the second problem (economic, social, political,
environmental, complexity, inequity, ethical/moral, etc.) and
provide support for your claims. This should be one or two (1-
2) paragraphs.
6. Explain the third problem (economic, social, political,
environmental, complexity, inequity, ethical/moral, etc.) and
provide support for your claims. This should be one or two (1-

7. 2) paragraphs.
7. Use effective transitional words, phrases, and sentences
throughout the paper.
8. Provide a concluding paragraph that summarizes the stated
problems and promises a solution.
9. Develop a coherently structured paper with an introduction,
body, and conclusion
10. Support claims with at least three (3) quality, relevant
references. Use credible, academic sources available through
Strayer University’s Resource Center.
11. Other