Resolved: In the United States, juveniles charged with violent felonies ought to be treated as adult

Resolved: In the United States, juveniles charged with violent felonies ought to be treated as adults in the criminal justice system. I would like to thank my opponent for participating in this debate. First I will define words from the debate topic. The definitions of juveniles, violent felonies, and criminal justice I found on worldwebnet.princeton.edu. Juveniles is defined as "a person who is under age (usually below 18), who is found to have committed a crime in states which have declared by law that a minor lacks responsibility and thus may not be sentenced as an adult. However, the legislatures of several states have reduced the age of criminal responsibility for serious crimes or for repeat offenders to as low as 14." Charged means accused of a crime. Violent Felonies "means any crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another; or is burglary, arson, or extortion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another." Ought is the equivalent to supposed or should, as in "You ought to do this.” Criminal justice "is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts." Adults is defined as anyone 18 years of age or older. The Criminal Justice system is defined as the law. My value for this topic is Justice and my criterion is retribution. Juveniles ought to be treated as adults in the criminal justice system for the following reasons: Adult crimes deserve adult punishments, crimes unpunished take away safety in the community, and crime is a matter of choice. I believe adult crimes deserve adult punishments. Why is it fair if a 15 year old kid kills someone else’s child and then they get a soft punishment? If an adult does this they can be put in prison with a harsh punishment even death. It’s not safe for the community to have a minor softly punished and then have the minor get back out and at risk of committing a similar crime. When a juvenile is convicted of a crime they can’t be put on life on parole. Also it is against the law for a juvenile to go to a jury. If juvenile commits an adult felony then they should have a adult punishment. It’s just as bad as if an adult does it. Crimes not punished take away the safety in community. If a juvenile commits an adult felony and its not correctly punished or punished at all then won’t it drive them not to care? If someone gets away with something over and over they are just going to have repetitive behavior. If you are letting juveniles’ off the hook for violent crimes then that means they are still out there somewhere in the community committing the same crime. Not only is your community at risk but you are as well. People don’t learn until they are corrected. If you don’t correct someone then when will they stop? Some believe that exposure to adults may create a bad mental image and mentally corrupt a juveniles mind. Well Video games and TV can also tie into this. If juvenile’s are shooting up people and watching murder’s on TV then some may believe they can do it in real life. When a juvenile commits a murder are they going to say but they did it on a video game? Even if they do it’s not the video game picking up the gun and blowing the other persons head off in reality. It’s the kid doing it. You can’t blame anyone else for your actions but yourself. It’s the juvenile’s choice to commit a violent crime or not. If you can’t do the time don’t do the crime!