David Sanchez 4/23/2024 AD JUS 8 Professor Smith Thought Paper - Sentencing youth to life without parole.
Under what conditions do you think a young person (like Ethan Crumbly) should be sentenced to life without parole and how should a jurisdiction determine when a young person may be considered an adult? When it comes to determining what conditions make a young person an adult, we have to look at the mental capacity and the way the person is raised. In the case of Ethan Crumbly, it’s clear that he understood what he was doing, accepting the consequences of killing four people and the damage done overall. Even though he took responsibility, there’s more to the case such as the parent’s and his age as the juvenile system doesn’t like to give…show more content… During the murders, Ethan Crumbly was about 15 years old. At that age, everyone should know right from wrong and the consequences of doing something to this magnitude. There may be factors that affect the way someone is raised, but if we take standard people or just average people, then most people know at that age that there’s things you shouldn’t do. One factor being the environment a person grows up in as it may influence a certain behavior that may be negative or positive. Another thing that might need to be done is an IQ test in order to see if the person is competent enough to understand right from wrong, or can mentally understand people and situations. Overall, if the person is competent enough to understand and is taught right from wrong, then the responsibility lies on young adults (this case is different as the parents did nothing about their child's mental health). When reviewing the article “Adolescents and the Criminal Justice System” it talks about the way adolescents act and the lack of responsibility. I wouldn’t say that adolescents do not understand the consequences of their actions, but the fact is that they are still kids so it doesn’t come to their mind first.…show more content… Another thing that can be a factor is the fact that they learn it online or from people around them. Adolescents are easily prone to copy individuals that may be fictional characters or friends/family. The article talks about adults not caring about their image and not trying to appeal, which I feel is not true. For example, a person may change the way they look for someone or to appeal to a certain group. This doesn’t only apply to adolescents, but throughout life people will do things for others for attention. Overall, the article tries to give insight to the mind of an adolescent compared to an adult, but some of the reasons could be argued to just be a factor of being human. Should parents be held responsible for the criminal acts of their children and how should circumstances like age and type or degree of the offense be determining factors? When looking at how a parent should be held responsible, we have to see the influence they have on their child. Many families have a hierarchy that can play a factor in how a kid is raised and how they listen to their parents. In the case of Ethan Crumbly, it’s clear that the parents did not take their child seriously as he suffered from mental issues. This can be seen by the
