Should children be tried as adults in court? Should they be sent to prison if they murder someone? These are the hardest decisions for a judge to make, especially when they are talking about a child. Some people think that it is a harsh punishment to send children to jail and then some people think that it is the right decision to send murderers to prison. Mike Hendricks thinks that it is wrong for children to be tried as adults in court. He says, “Sending them to adult prison where they’re abused and come out more dangerous and damaged than when they went in” (Hendricks 2). I am against Hendrick’s words and I think that it doesn’t matter how old you are, if you commit a crime you should be punished for it.
Children who purposely murder someone should be tried as an adult in court and they should be punished for there crime. For example, say an eight teen year old commits a murder one month after his eighteenth birthday. He would be tried as an adult and would be given a harsh punishment as an adult. If that same person had committed a murder three months earlier then he would be tried and punished as a minor and would not receive as harsh punishment as an adult. I do not think that is a fair punishment for a murderer who is about to turn eight teen. He should have been tried as an adult because he purposely murdered another citizen and he is old enough to understand the consequences of murdering. That is why children should be tried as adults in court.
Depending on their age, children think differently than adults, especially younger kids who might not completely understand about murder. A counter argument to my previous argument would be that all children think differently than adults. Hendricks stated that, “Kids are not adults. Their brains are wired differently. They don’t think things out the way we do” (1). For example, suppose a five year old found a gun and was playing with it and accidently shot someone. Should the boy go to court and be tried as an adult or would he be sent to the juvenile court system? I think the five year old boy should immediately go to the juvenile court system or be sent to a rehabilitation center. The young boy obviously murdered a citizen so he has to receive a punishment so this incident won’t happen again. Sending the boy to a rehabilitation center I think is still a harsh punishment for him because he doesn’t understand why he is being sent to rehab and he doesn’t understand the consequences of murder. So instead of sending him to adult prison I think the best place and the right punishment for him to go is a rehabilitation center. Another counter argument is that a kid’s age might not always reflect their understanding of what a murder is and all of its implications. So using someone’s age to determine a crime might not always be the right thing to do.

Should children be tried as adults in court? Yes, I think that children who purposely murder someone and fully understand what murder is should be tried as an adult. I think they should be tried as an adult because for the children that are old enough and who understand about murder should be punished. It doesn’t matter how old you are, if you commit a crime and you fully understand what you have done, then you should be punished for it.