TOPIC: Punishing juvenile offenders: Light punishments encourage kids to commit more crimes
We are doing our youth no favors by granting leniency when it comes to punishing juvenile offenders.
Instead, the only effect it has is to allow them to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions, something that will eventually be passed down to their children leading to a second generation of people who look to pass the buck. These offenders are also in for a rude awakening when they reach the magical age of 18 in the not-too-distant future.
This will be the point when their offenses land them not in a program to assess their coping skills or to determine why they don’t like their mothers, but instead with stiff terms in the state penitentiary where they will exist in an 8-by-6 cell surrounded by hardened criminals.
The Bible tells us if you spare the rod, you spoil the child. Today, the rod is rarely used, replaced by alternative punishments which have no more impact than the proverbial slap on the wrist. The juvenile offense rate proves that point. Our inability or indifference as parents, and as a society, to instill a sense of responsibility in our children has left us with juvenile crime rates like none before, especially in Warren County where juvenile offense rates are among the highest in the state.
Youthful offenders know when they are doing wrong. They know it is wrong to rob, vandalize and steal, yet their belief that their wrongs will be only mildly punished serves as no deterrent because they are not forced to take responsibility.
As for the victims of juvenile crime, it matters not whether it was committed by a 15-year-old or a 55-year-old. There is still a loss and a victimization. We shouldn’t hang them up by the thumbs or throw them in a dungeon, but we should make sure there’s a price to be paid when a juvenile breaks the law.