It is argued that people who commit severe crimes should be castigated equally independently of the age. I am in disagreement with this opinion and I intend to explore a couple of reasons to support my view, such as the lack of maturity in young people and the effects of peer pressure.
Firstly, young people do not have the knowledge of the consequences that their actions could potentially do. As a result, they might possibly commit a serious crime without even thinking about what it follows. In contrast, adults are more mature and do not have the same excuse. Consequently, they should be punished with a more severe sentence. To illustrate, usually supermarket robberies are commited by teenagers because they are not familiarized that one of the sentences might potentially be serving time in jail.
Furthermore, young citizens could potentially perform unwanted actions owing to peer pressure. While adults might already have a responsible group of friends and are conscious of their own actions, young people might possibly change their behaviour patterns with the purpose of being accepted by their peers. As a result, adults are more likely to escape peer pressure. In addition, I would also like to point out that a person who is forced to commit a crime just to prove something to a group of people does not deserve the same punishement as an adult who is aware of their own actions. For example, a joint assault generally has an individual who does not belong to the main group, and he is participating just to get approval.
To conclude, I wholeheartedly opine that young people deserve a less severe punishment from adults, due to serveral arguments butressed in this essay.