In 2008, 2764.4 youths on 100 000 were charged with criminal offenses in Quebec alone. Those are just the ones who were found guilty. Imagine all the ones who were accused but were either found innocent or who got away. Some crimes are more serious than others, of course, but still the amount of crime committed by our youth is insane. What could drive these kids to do such things. What makes a person commit murder, steal money and objects, lie to people around them, rape someone, and kidnap those who can't defend themselves. It's awful when you hear adults do it, but it's even worse when it's a kid. What makes kids grow up so fast and do things even adults shouldn't do? More importantly, what should Canada do with its young criminals? Should they be tried as adults for the crimes they've committed? Should they get away with just a slap on the wrist because they're not "mature enough to understand what they've done"? Where's the line that separates being tried as an adult and being tried as a minor?

Without a doubt, i believe that no teenager should be tried as an adult, no matter the severity of the crime, because they're just that, teenagers. They're kids; kids who sometimes haven't matured enough to realize the severity of what they've done. Sometimes, emotions take over, as it does with any person, but kids don't always know how to control their emotions, nor should they be expected to. Now, this does not mean that they should get off with nothing but a slap on the wrist, but being sentenced to a lifetime in prison or even being sentenced to death in some countries is not the appropriate punishment for a child. Why should they have to suffer their entire lives for a mistake they made as a kid. For some, that could be as long as 75 years punishment.

In cases like these, when children kill their parents because of abuse, you can't help but feel bad for the kid. Most of the time, it's the only way the kid knows to stop the pain he's suffering. How can you feel ok with locking those kids up for life? If a kid gets put in prison with adults, instead of being put into a juvenile detention center, they will be influenced by all the adult criminals around them. Having that company around them could turn them actually evil. They will never learn; they will only get worse. Being around people who have sometimes come acustom to evil could make this teenager leave the facility with the same fate. Most of the time, when children are put in prisons with adults and then they get out, they often find themselves back in there in no time.

I read an article that explained why kids kill their parents and the article explains that most of the time, kids kill their parents because they have been seriously neglected or abused by them. It's almost like self defense; like a cry for help, in the most serious way.

When watching When kids get Life, i kept feeling the need to help these kids. Yes, they'd done awful things in their lives, but in most of the cases, they were just trying to fight the pain that the person caused them. When a parent abuses you, betrays you, how can you feel ok? A parent is a person who is supposed to protect you from the dangers of the world, not be the danger in your life. As horrible as it is to kill someone, especially your parent, i can see how they would end up doing such a thing. When your parent is the problem, there's no one to help you. The only thing to do is to get rid of the problem completely.

Now, of course murder is not the only crime juveniles commit. The number of teenagers that steal is so big that you can't even begin to count. Kids steal sometimes to fit in with crowds or because they are forced to do so, as a sort of initiation or something. Often, kids steal because they don't have enough money to buy the things they need to live. Although it's still wrong, sometimes it can't be controlled. Kids do stupid things when they feel desperate. What happens to those kids? They get the same punishment as an adult does. An adl should know better. An adult has had a lifetime of enperience to teach them better. An adult doesn't have to steal. They can get jobs; get responsible. Often, kids can't. How can you treat them the same?

Laws show that minors are not responsible. They can not drink until they are 18, they can't get married until they are 18, they can't vote until they're 18. In some countries, they can't do these things until 21. The law can't pick and choose. It's that whole thing of having your cake and eating it too. They can't stop kids from doing all sorts of things until they're a certain age because they're still kids and thentreat them as adults the second it works for them.

This is why kids should not be tried as adults are. They should not be given the same punishment as adults are. I'm not saying they shouldn't be punished, because they should. Depending on the severity of the crime, they should be sentenced to different punishments. If the crime is extremely severe, like murder, they should be put in juvenile correctional centers and monitored, made sure they get whatever proceeded them to commit the crime is gone. If the crime is minor, like theft, they should be given community service or something along those lines. I feel that is the appropriate punishment for youth offenders.