Adult crime, adult punishment

The juvenile law system is in place for a reason. Many youths commit minor offenses, like theft, and don’t deserve the full, hard-hitting persecution of being charged as an adult.

After all, kids often just don’t know better and act out as a result of immaturity. But where does the line get drawn?

When older teenagers, almost ready to enter the adult world of responsibility and consequence, decide to commit crimes like an adult, they should be treated as such.

Last week, two Indianapolis teenagers committed a series of robberies in the early hours of the morning, injuring one man and killing another.

During the course of two hours, the boys robbed four different people. One of those robberies resulted in the murder of an Indianapolis man.

The oldest of these boys, Sirquain Burr, 17, will be charged as an adult for robbery, murder and other offenses. The younger boy, 15, will be tried in juvenile court.

The decision to charge the 17-year-old boy as an adult was made because of his age and the severity of his crimes. On top of being younger, the 15-year-old, who had missed his bus to school, was picked up by Burr and given a ride. This is when the crime spree began.

While not an adult in age, Burr was certainly acting like one. It is not the norm for minors to spend their morning casually robbing multiple people at gunpoint and killing one of them.  

As far as juvenile crimes go, the vast majority are non-violent.

While it isn’t unheard of for minors to commit violent crimes, a large majority commit crimes of larceny/theft, vandalism and burglary. For a 17-year-old to commit murder is to show his true colors as an overtly aggressive danger to society.

In the 1990s, it became much easier for states to prosecute minors as adults given the appropriate

circumstances. There are more than 40 states who have passed such laws.

Still, it is a controversial issue that relies much more on a subjective school of thought than an objective one.

How horrific was the crime that was committed? Is the minor in question of an older adolescent age where he should know the consequences of his actions?

These questions must be asked of adolescent crime. Just because a teenage criminal is under the age of 18 doesn’t make him or her any less of a threat to people.

It’s abundantly clear that Burr no longer wants to be seen as a minor. These are the crimes of a man, and we should treat him as such.

In order to commit multiple robberies and murder a man in cold blood, you have to have the calculated mentality of an adult.

A man is now dead, and Burr deserves none of the protection or leniency of the juvenile courts.