Should psychotic teenage killers be put on trial for the crimes they have committed?
Monday, March 21, 2011
Works Cited
Burns, Kari Sable. www.karisable.com. 2006. 17 March 2011 <http://karisable.com/ymsherman.htm>.
This article is significant to my topic because it tells a case about a young teenage boy who was sentenced two consecutive terms of life after killing his mother and adopted father. This shows how badly your mind can turn evil and make you commit a horrible action of killing your own loving parents.
This article is about the effect of violence from being influenced by television. It gives cases as examples of this negative effect on the young mind and how it can ruin your future as an individual.
This link talks about gruesome cases of teens killing their parents. It informs viewers statistics that show that the number of cases of this crime is increasing very frequently.
A teenage boy named Christopher Simmons was arrested after abducting and murdering his neighbor at the age of 17 in 1993. Many researchers and psychiatrists surprisingly rushed to his side to defend him in the Supreme Court.
A man named Tom ap Rhys Pryce was stabbed to death by two teenage robbers one night; this tragedy affected his loved one in a big way. The fiancée of the man has spoken her words of grief, pain and horror of the murder and the sad loss of her “soul mate.”
I would like to know the reasons why people on both sides of the debating issue if they should have more severe punishment or get medical help. I want to find out all the statistics of how many teens get jail time and how long. I also want to know how many of these teens got away with their murders because they got sympathy instead. The statistics will show how many of these cases got solved correctly and how many were just brushed off like it was nothing. I want to also know what things impact damage on the young developing mind such as; violent video games, TV shows, personal experiences, being involved or in a relationship with others and using drugs or alcohol. I want to know how much each of these things damages the mind, if they do at all. I hope I find very good research and information for this topic because it fascinates how much young minds can get hurt for everyday life things.
As you already know, my topic deals with the debate whether psychotic teens should be put on trial for the murders they have committed. My prior knowledge of this research project is that the human mind is very complicated and fascinating. Anyone’s mind can be damaged easily by anything harmful. I also know that many people have tried to study this topic and determine why the young minds can glitch so easily and make you become mentally insane. Teens that have been on trial are either in jail right paying the consequences of their actions or out free in the world having the opportunity to kill again since they just got a slap on the hand. In some cases, the kids actually get more sympathy when their homes of paragon are finally discovered to be disasters. Rather being scolded, the teens are being rewarded by being able to live life without punishment or guilt. I think that the teens should receive medical help if they are much needed for help. But I think teens shouldn’t be able to be freed just because of the pity they get with their disastrous households.
I was sitting at home flipping through the channels on TV one day; I came across this show called “Kids Who Kill,” on the E channel. The show was about how teenagers, people that would have never thought to be criminals, became cold-blooded murderers. It shocked me seeing that there were so many teenage killers, that there was a top 15 list! It was a very sad thing to watch, but a fascinating subject to learn about. It was surprising to find out that some of the teens got convicted and sentenced; others didn’t get as severe punishments as the others because they were younger. This gave me a good idea to use for my research project for English 2. My research question is, “Should teenagers be put on trial for the crime of murder they have committed?” What if the teenage murderer is actually an undiagnosed psychotic who is screaming out for help in the only way he/she knew how? Should these young criminals be punished more for their actions rather than getting a minor punishment?
