Juvenile Justice System

So, I was recently having a discussion with someone in an online class that shall go unnamed. 

We were basically asked whether the juvenile system in the United States should continue.

This was their response:

"I do feel as if this [not continuing it] should be the case. These kids know right from wrong just like adults so if they want to do something that most adults do then let them suffer along with the adults. It is not fair that they basically get slapped on the wrist and nothing happens to them. That is a big problem in the world we live in today, kids feel as if the world owes them something and that nothing can happen to them. This would teach not only the individual that did it a lesson but it would also teach his friends and many other kids a lesson as well. Kids feel so entitled and that everything should be handed to them that they do not feel as if they should have to work or do anything. And if it isn't handed to them then kids will go steal, rob, or take violent action to get what they want because they feel as if the world owes it to them."

I barely even knew where to start. 

I am honestly going to have to almost entirely disagree on this and perhaps go slightly off topic, but I will tie it in. Most kids do not, in fact, know right from wrong just like adults. Most kids are not entitled brats. Most kids now are depressed pseudo-adults forced into an ersatz adulthood at a young age either due to divorce or being conceived and birthed out of wedlock and there not being both father and mother figures present to teach them right from wrong. The products of divorce are mostly depressed people who think they are completely worthless, failures at life, and they live in a world where they can only see that they deserve nothing. Many of us got pushed into being adults without having the mental capacity due to living in the reality of a torn apart family, or maybe families saw the other child acting as an adult and got pushed into being one as well. Juveniles are not adults.

As respectfully as I can say this, the idea of entitled juveniles knowing right from wrong just like adults is one of the most preposterous notions I have seen all day.

To put this in perspective, juveniles cannot vote, can only drink under certain restrictions, many cannot drive, have curfew in some jurisdictions, must legally have a guardian under most circumstances, and the list goes on. If you want to put us in adult court because we supposedly know right from wrong just as good and well as adults do, then why are we restricted in these things by law? (Hint: because we are not adults and we do not think and many do not yet have the mental capacity to reason and think like them.) Would you legalise drinking and driving and voting for a 13 year old? No, because you know most 13 year olds couldn’t handle all of that. Would you emancipate a 15 year old from their parents and the government and throw them out into the world? Would you impose the death penalty on a 6 year old because they watched paw patrol, thought “Hey, I can do that, I saw mommy driving!” jumped in a car, and committed a hit and run? No, that would be unequivocally absurd.

“…not fair that they basically get slapped on the wrist and nothing happens to them.” There is still sentencing in the juvenile system. I honestly have literally no idea where you got this from.

“…kids feel … that nothing can happen to them.” Wait, wouldn’t that mean they are immature? That honestly helps my case that juveniles do not know the world and right and wrong as well as adults.

I could keep going, but I am pretty sure that my point is pretty clear. This is an unfounded post and I would recommend you revise your position. There are many reasons they are tried differently.

So, what do you personally think of this issue?