Juvenile Justice System

Two teenagers(17-year old Anthony Zarro and 16-year old Christopher Allen) murdered a visiting couple (Paul and Margaret Brooks) from Michigan in just North of Missouri.The murder was carried out in late January of 2013, the exact date was not given because the teens were hiding the bodies. The teens were arrested on January 31st, charged for first degree murder, and armed criminal action. The teens were runaways from Lives Under Construction Ranch, a place where they help young individuals struggling with issues and is very lenient to Christian beliefs. This could be one of the reasons why they committed the crime, maybe they were mentally done with everything and had all this pent up anger within. The teens went through trial and the judge came to a conclusion of trying both as adults. Their next appearance in court will be on May 29.

The brain research could play a role in this case and there was a statement saying the teens were running away. They could have had a brain condition that was very serious but not treated. There hasn't been a punishment sent on both of the individuals but if they were adults they would surely face life in prison.

The juvenile court system is handling this case fairly well but I would consider running some test on the brains of the teens or any other past events that could have triggered this action. Then again if the individuals knew what they were doing was wrong then there is really no other excuse than to put them through our court system as adults. The only consideration we should put in our juvenile court system is brain research because we really don't know if the criminal had no control of their actions, but if he/she knew what they were doing was inhumane then they should be tried as adults. 

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Juvenile's Charged as Adults

In the beginning of our various readings, I always had my mind open to whether or not charging minors as adults. I really relied on the situation, depending on the age and the level of the crime they did. Most of the readings we went over had cases where most of these kids had some sort of indication that whatever they were doing was wrong. One of the cases really showed that the criminals knew what they were doing, for example the teenagers that murdered their grandma and took her money just for pizza. This was just an inhumane act on the teenager's part and they're at the age in which they know what is right from wrong. In another case where a twelve year old killed a six year old girl by preforming a move that he saw in his favorite wrestling show. He was sentenced to life in prison, that kid still had a whole life ahead of him but it was justifiable from all the damage he caused. Maybe a lesser time frame would be justifiable, but the kid shouldn't have left unpunished. There is a questioned that pops out from the article"The Brain on Trial", should we put criminals in jail for ding a crime based on their mental well being? In those cases most of the criminals developed brain tumors and didn't act like themselves. Now the question is are they mentally ill when they committed the crime? We should have an outline going through every aspect before we lock the juvenile in jail, for example their mental well being and how he or she was raised.