TOW 19 - Argument

Society is constantly searching for a way to lower the amount of crime happening in our community. It is scary how many crimes are committed each day. The NY Times recently released an article on how to reduce crime. They claimed that raising the age that people are tried as a juvenile would help lower the rate. While I agree that raising this age would be beneficial to our society, it can only be raised to a certain extent.
The legal ages for being tried as an adult usually range between the ages of 14 and 16 years old. While I do not think crimes should be taken lightly, I agree that it is not logical to try someone as an adult who is not even legally an adult. The NY Times released studies in their article of how raising this age would be beneficial. One state raised the age to 18, and the number of people that were rearrested decreased by 39%. This is because the juvenile detention centers focused more on reform and helping these children learn. I believe that often children who commit crimes do not know better, and lack role models to teach them right from wrong. This being said, if they are still a child, then they have the chance to learn and improve. I think raising the age can significantly help. However this state is now talking about raising their age from 18 to 21. Focusing on reform can still be beneficial for people the age of 21 so this would also add to reducing the number of people who are rearrested. However, it seems like there needs to be a limit of what this age is raised to. What is keeping the age from being raised from 21 to 25? At some point, I believe that people need to begin to be tried as adults. I think the age should not be raised any higher than 21, because if you are old enough to legally drink, you should be old enough to prevent yourself from committing a crime.
That being said, I think the age should be no lower than 18. If society doesn't allow someone to vote, then they should not allow them to be tried as an adult. Clearly if their judgements aren't trusted enough to let them vote, then they have not developed strong enough judgment to act as an adult.
I think that raising the age will greatly benefit society by helping reform a larger amount of people. Kids still have their whole life ahead of them, even if they make a mistake. By being tried as a kid, they have the option to change, and start over.