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

I affirm the resolution Resolved: In the United States, juveniles charged with violent felonies ought to be treated as adults in the criminal justice system.Definition: Violent Felony: In U.S. sentencing guidelines, felonies range from Class E (1-5 year sentence) to Class A (life imprisonment or the death penalty). Examples of violent felonies include murder, kidnapping, arson, crimes against children, armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape, firearm use in certain cases, or firearm possession in certain cases. Juvenile: According to Cornell University Law School, person who has not attained his eighteenth birthday. Treated as an adult: Juvenile courts usually hear cases involving persons between the ages of ten and eighteen. (The upper age may be lower in some states.) If the prosecution charges an older juvenile with a particularly serious or violent offense, the district or prosecuting attorney may request that an adult court try the juvenile as an adult. In some states, juveniles fourteen or older and charged with serious acts like murder, rape or armed robbery are handled in adult courts unless the judge transfers them to juvenile court. Observation #1 It is important to remember that a juvenile charged with a violent felony has not been convicted of the crime. V: Justice. V.C.: Social Contract. A government that oversteps its bounds with unjust laws--even those that are initiated through democratic processes--has violated the Social Contract, which is a rough approach to balancing rights claims as a precursor to the formation of a State. Any State that, through some loss of sovereignty, can or will no longer enforce the law, has violated the Contract, and is no longer legitimate. If juveniles aren't fully punished for committing violent felonies, perhaps the State has not fulfilled its obligation to protect the public and enforce the law. Furthermore, if juveniles' privacy is protected in the juvenile justice system, the public won't/can't know about potential felons in its midst. Contention 1: Juveniles arrests for violent crimes decreased over time. Juvenile murder arrests increased sub- stantially between 1987 and 1993. In the peak year of 1993, there were about 3,800 juvenile arrests for murder. Be- tween 1993 and 2000, juvenile arrests for murder declined, with the number of arrests in 2000 (1,200) less than one- third that in 1993. In 2000, Juveniles were involved in 9% of murder arrests, 14% of aggravated assault arrests, 33% of burglary arrests, 25% of robbery arrests, and 24% of weapons arrests in 2000. [1] Now in 2010, Those juveniles make up 3 percent of all felony arrests and 6 percent of violent felony arrests. This is working because juveniles are already being tried as adults. For example, A judge ruled Friday that the 16-year-old accused of the murders of a mother and daughter will be tried as an adult. Since the murders in April, there have been questions about what possibly motivated Josa Sosa to allegedly stab Lori Rountree and her daughter, Adrian, more than 60 times. As I stated in my definition of being tried as an adult, this clearly fits the age group of being tried as an adult. http://www.wsmv.com..., July 29, 2006 [1] http://www.ncjrs.gov... Juvenile Justice Bulletin