Committing a crime will always be illegal, no matter what age they commit it. In the United States, if you are under the age of eighteen you are automatically considered a minor but can be tried and convicted as an adult. This will be agreed depending on the crime committed. The purpose of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation rather than punishment. Being tried as an adult can give you the punishment of life in prison without parole, meaning you will spend the rest of your life in prison. Each year in the United States, more than 200,000 youth are tried or sentenced as adults. I believe that minors under the age of 13 should be tried as minors because they are not yet adults. The punishments will help them consider their horrible crime and hopefully learn right from wrong. Trying Juveniles, as adults, will not give them the opportunity to learn from mistakes and get the mental help they need to turn their lives around. We know that a teenager can experience a lot of peer pressure during adolescence. They are not yet fully mature to be fully responsible for their irresponsible actions. In the article Starting Finds on Teenage Brain by Paul Thompson, he states, “The biggest surprise in recent research on the adolescent brain is the discovery that massive loss of brain tissue occurs in the adolescent years.” If a teenager begins to lose brain tissue, his or her emotions and thinking will be disrupted as the brain transitions. It wouldn't just be convicting and charging a minor as an adult. Being as young as they are, they don't understand how to control certain emotions and actions. He also explains that “brain cells and connections are lost only in areas that control impulses, risk-taking, and self-control… middle of paper… Nile because an adult is mature enough to know the consequences ". and punishments for any actions committed. Juveniles should be sentenced to juvenile prison for a maximum of four to eight years. During those years in prison they can learn and experience what life in a cell can officially be like if they continue to commit more crimes in the future. When they get out of prison they must be sentenced to 1 to 3 years in a rehabilitation facility where young people under the age of 13 go to change their lives. In Juveniles Don't Deserve Life Sentences by Gail Garinger she mentions: “These children were told that they could never change and that no one cared what became of them. They are denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and are left without hope." We shouldn't throw away the key to their success without giving them a second chance to improve.