Standardization of penalty
for juveniles ???
Really
an interesting topic to debate on… Well I personally feel that juveniles should
not be held to the same standards of criminal responsibility as adults because
in adolescents, decision making is diminished, they are less culpable to resist
coercive influence and their character is still undergoing change. Standing
firm against the hypothesis/topic by laying the foundation that emerging
knowledge about cognitive, psychosocial and neurobiological development in
adolescents supports the conclusion that I feel about not standardizing the
criminal punishment for juveniles like that of adults.
The
starting point of my argument is the core principle of proportionality ->
the foundation of any legitimate system of state punishment i.e.
proportionality holds that fair criminal punishment is measured not only by the
harm caused or threatened by the individual but also by his or her blame
worthiness. Thus the question that we address is whether, and in what ways the
immaturity of adolescent offenders is relevant to their blame worthiness, and
in turn to appropriate punishment for their criminal acts. Well answering such
a question requires a careful examination of the developmental capacities and
processes that are relevant to adolescent criminal choices, as well as the
conditions and circumstances that reduce culpability in the criminal law.
First
and the most obviously, adolescents levels of cognitive and psychosocial
developmental are likely to shape their choices, including the criminal
choices, in what ways that distinguish them from adults and that may undermine
competent decision making. Secondly, because in adolescents decision making
capacities are immature and their autonomy constrained, they are more
vulnerable than adults to the influence of coercive circumstances that mitigate
culpability for all persons such as provocation or threat. Finally, because
these adolescents are still in the process of forming personal identity, their
criminal behavior is less likely than that of an adult to reflect bad
character.
Human
mind is basically divided into two parts -> the primary subconscious mind
and the secondary mind or the main memory. And in adolescents this subconscious
mind is much more prone to the influence as compared to mature adults.
Adolescent mind is vulnerable to getting hypnotized too. Subconscious state of
mind can easily be achieved in adolescents due to hormonal changes and hence
most of the crimes committed by them are actually against their will and not by
choice.
Just
take for instance, as for privileged people like all of you reading this post,
transition means from orkut to facebook to insta to twitter to finally
snapchat. Just how our lives constantly revolve around showoff and fame, in a
similar way for unprivileged and illiterate lives revolve around money, the
biggest necessity and the most essential one. When we being the privileged ones
can be easily brainwashed in the name of social networking to raising
businesses, in the name of entrepreneurship to network marketing, then in a
similar way these innocent teenagers are brainwashed in the name of money to
committing crimes. Most of the times even they are unaware of the crime that they
are involved in.
Thus
typical adolescents are less culpable than adults because juvenile criminal
conduct is driven by transitory influences that are constitutive of this
developmental stage. And raising adolescents to the same standards of criminal
punishment as that of adults is somewhat unfair what I feel. However, the
alternatives like correction homes and good parenting are always the better
alternatives.
