Ouellette 1
Arla Ouellette
Professor Vollaro
ENC 1101
April 6, 2017
Reader Response Essay
Prosecuting Minors as Adults: An Introduction and Opinion
Crime and Punishment; Americans are fascinated by seeing criminals receive their due in
court. An integral part of the indomitable American attitude is the desire to see this country’s
Criminal Justice System work properly. When functioning at idealistic levels, those persons
found guilty of crimes, are punished regardless of race, gender, religion, income, education, etc.
As the art in courtrooms across America either proclaims or depicts, Justice is blind. Every
defendant is treated equally; except, in criminal cases where a minor has been charged with a
crime. In the United States, minors are tried in a separate Juvenile Court System.
In the United States, the legal structure is set up so that children accused of a crime–
juvenile offenders–go through a different system of justice than adult offenders. While the laws
regarding the crimes committed may be the same, regardless of a defendant’s age, punishments
for juvenile defendants are regularly quite different than those handed down to adults accused of
similar crimes. The intent of this system was focused on rehabilitation rather than, punishment.
While there is no national standard for how and when juvenile defendants are prosecuted as
adults, the way most states handle that determination does seem to remain relatively consistent
from state to state (“Juvenile Crime Law” pars 3-4). Even without a national standard for when a
where a juvenile should be tried in criminal court as an adult, the standard for when that decision
is best made is usually after the commission of a capital crime.
Ouellette 2
Per Florida Law, after a person reaches the age of 18, they, “shall enjoy and suffer the
rights, privileges, and obligations of all persons 21 years of age or older except as otherwise
excluded by the State Constitution” (“Disability”). Per Florida Statute XLVII, chapter 985.556,
the removal of an underage defendant’s legal protections as a minor can be removed following a
request from the State Attorney that has been approved by the court, or if the minor defendant is
a “repeat felony offender” (“Waiver”). On their surface, as text in book or on a computer screen,
statutes, like the aforementioned, seem to serve Lady Justice perfectly. They keep her blind.
Scanning headlines, newsfeeds, or even the nightly news, one could argue the number of
legal cases where minors are being tried and convicted is on the rise. Searching those same
headlines for cases in Florida, one might argue the Sunshine State’s court system has been quite
adept at prosecuting children as adults. Some people, like Meredith Clark at MSNBC.com, would
