Tin Tức

The committing of a crime does not exclude any age group, much less the able-bodied and emotionally immature youths out there. In recent years, in fact, we have seen higher numbers of crimes committed by young people than ever before, causing the debate of whether or not to try underage youngsters as adults to once again resurface. Advocates of this movement argue that more severe sanctions specifically for this age group would deter youngsters from committing crimes and help them think more rationally against emotional impulses, as are often the motive of crimes committed by youngsters. However, critics of this movement often highlight the ethics, or a lack thereof, of condemning immature youngsters who would otherwise have grown up into fine adults. Interestingly, there is also an argument stating that severe sanctions would in a way encourage youngsters to enact their criminal ideation, for the fact that youngsters of this age often carry an all-or-nothing mentality. All things considered, the handling of juvenile criminal cases should be treated on a case-by-case basis with a lean towards delivering an age-appropriate verdict, save for a number of especially unpardonable and seemingly irredeemable cases.

There has been no shortage of extreme juvenile criminal cases in which the offender was given leniency due to their age alone which have caused significant unrest following said verdict, especially for the victims’ family. Understandably, the idea that a criminal capable of committing such heinous crimes that would otherwise result in a life, or death, sentence would be able to walk free after doing enough time does not sit well with many. One has to remember that sanctions, at the end of the day, are not only a social tool to curb crime rates, they are also a means of exacting justice upon those who have wronged others, which sometimes is the only solace the victims and/or their family have left. To that end, a verdict needs not only to be fair to the offender, but also to the victim for the fact that no one could be reasonably expected to accept a verdict that fails to exact justice
against someone who has caused them tremendous pain, despite justice being a relative measure. It should also be noted that while cases whose severity falls into this category are few in numbers, the perpetrators of said cases are often found to have expressed irredeemable qualities and a severely warped set of morals that would otherwise already be a menace to society, thus making severe sanctions all the more reasonable.

Having said that, many of the arguments against this movement are no less compelling. As much as an age of consent is an established concept in many countries, so too is the age of criminal responsibility, the establishment of which is undoubtedly backed by nothing less than substantial research. Below a certain age, offenders are deemed to have insufficiently developed mental faculties to fully tell right from wrong, the factor of which is also taken into consideration when deliberating the verdict of a crime, much like how mentally inept offenders are pardoned and sent to asylums instead. The factor of whether or not the offender was aware of the consequences of their actions, also play a part in trying offenders. Similarly, in accordance with the established age of criminal responsibility, offenders would need to be above that certain age to be considered capable of fully understanding the consequences of their actions, the fact of which would also lighten their sentence significantly if they were underage. This point of view holds its own in more ways than one, evident by the fact that many a developed country have chosen to employ the same concept in trying juveniles. Given the linear nature of such an approach, however, one could argue that there should be exceptions to this leniency in especially severe cases as mentioned above.

Ideally, criminal cases should always be dealt with on a case-by-case basis to ensure fair deliberation under all circumstances, but it cannot be helped that we live in a non-ideal world. However, as a society, we should thrive to ensure that the justice system is able to act fairly to all parties involved, be it a victim or an underage offender.

VOCABULARY

Advocate (n): Người ủng hộ
Sanction (n): Chế tài
Rational (adj): Lý trí
Impulse (n): Sự bốc đồng
Juvenile (n): Thanh thiếu niên
Pardon (v): Thứ tội
Redeem (v): Hối cải
Heinous (adj): Ác độc
Warped (adj): Méo mó
Compelling (adj): Thuyết phục
Asylum (n): Viện tâm thần
Deliberate (v): Cân nhắc kỹ lưỡng