Currently, many crimes are committed by children below 18 years, and some of those crimes lead to harm to other people. Some adults believe that youth should be punished like everyone else. I completely disagree with the idea of equality of all ages under the law, and this essay will support my idea on this topic.
First of all, the same punishment for children and adults would be unpredictably destructive for society: if a young person is punished by the death penalty, there is no chance to understand what that person did and why it is so serious for other people, because a young mind is not fully formed; if children are punished in jail with adults, they will adapt to that type of society because of their vulnerable mindset, which accepts that other prisoners are a new family, which will be the starting point of a crime-prison lifecycle; if a child spends the same time in prison as adults, that child will lose time adapting to society and will start a crime-prison lifecycle.
Another important point is that children’s minds are flexible, and they can grow into good people with help from specialists. Today, many governments understand this importance and create special schools for these young people, where they can get help with their problems, live and work in comfortable conditions, and, most importantly, get new knowledge and an education like average children.
On the other hand, the idea of “equal punishment for everyone” is popular, which ignores mental and physical health, age, social level, religions, and various other things that make us different. Indeed, some of the reasons that allow violence are unbelievably disappointing, especially the division of people and their ability to be equal before the law by sex, by mindset, by race, by views, and so on.
In conclusion, there are many reasons to differentiate punishments for children and adults, regardless of the seriousness of the crime. And I fully agree with this type of differentiation, which can be observed around the world. The maturity of the mind is one of the few reasons why the accused should be punished differently.