When it comes to the issue of crimes against humanity, we need to understand that we can not judge everyone the same way. This is the reason why there is a juvenile system for child crime is because a lot of the times these children do not know what they are doing, but then it’s sometimes. There are times when these children know exactly what they are doing and are not just trying to be mischievous or foolish. In fact, there are children who know that their punishment for crimes will be trivial and will use that opportunity to commit crimes and play the innocent card afterwards because they know the system will seek to understand them instead of outright punishing them. They understand the psychology of how adults think and would leverage on it in manipulating the system to think the children need to be understood instead of making them suffer for their crimes. These sets of children are the best in avoiding punishments and would do unimaginable things knowing that they will get away with it.
I was watching a documentary where I saw a group of children target a bus driver for whatever reason. The oldest amongst them was about 16 years old and the youngest was 14. They planned an assault on a bus driver carrying kindergarten pupils to school. They threw a heavy stone at him while driving that almost knocked him unconscious with over 20 kids in the bus. Thank goodness the bus driver found a way to regain control for a few moments, put the bus to a stop before passing out from blood loss because the injury to his head was severe. When the children were arrested, they continued bragging about how they know that they can’t go to jail, they even told the judge in court that sending them to jail would be denying them their fundamental human right. The judge then asked them if they knew the gravity of what they did, and one of them said it doesn’t matter and what mattered was that they can’t go to jail. The Judge then sentenced them to juvenile detention, and after their time there they will serve 10 years in the adult facility.
It came as a shock to them because they thought they were going home, but this just proves that sometimes even kids need to be taught a lesson the hard way so that they can learn that the world does not revolve around them and that there are consequences for every action even as children. I believe the system should not just victimize children when they commit crimes, but should critically assess the intent behind their crimes and judge them based on that. If not these children will go on to cause big trouble for kids in the juvenile centers and will even come out worse in the society. I believe in fairness, but I also believe in justices especially if such kids are a threat to others their age. If will be unfair to the other kids to put such kids in the same place because it will be like putting adults alongside children in the same prison
THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S
PROMPT FOR WEEK 231 EPISODE 3
