Ladies and gentlemen, over the coming week I will show to you that juvenile offenders should not be treated as adults by the legal system. For the purpose of this argument, I will be defining a minor as somebody under the age of 18 years old, and I hope that my opponent shall do the same thing.
Change happens
First of all, I want everyone to go back to when they were a youngster. I'm not going to be naive enough to suggest that a 15 year old doesn't know right from wrong because they evidently do. However, what a lot of people that age don't realise is the cnsequence of doing wrong. I know I mad emistakes when I was 16, and I know I wouldn't do them again if presented in the same situation. If you lock someone of that age up with adults, then you have effectively written off their chances of ever changing and have just neglected them. Just look at yourself now and think about how different things would have been if you were forever judged by the way you acted at 15.
It is unbalanced
Minors are not treated by adults in any other way, so why this? They don't have thhe vote and they aren't allowed to drink because they aren't deemed responsible enough. If they aren't responsible enough to engage in the positive aspects of society, then why are they deemed responsible enough to face the negative aspects? It is completely and utterly unfair to say to someone you are not an adult, and don't deserve to be treated like one, unless you do wrong, in which case, your as adult as the Judge.
It leads down a slippery slope
It is no secret that people in gaol influence each other. If you put a young offender in a cell with a hardened criminal, they are far more likely to reoffend, because they will be taken under the wing of these bigger criminals. You often read about gangs forming in prisons, and putting young impressionable people there is certainly a bad idea.
These are my opening arguments, and the principle points that I shall argue. I look forward to my opponent's rebuttal.
