Hanna Chiou

As a response to the increased lethality of juvenile crime, many states are implementing legislation allowing underage criminals to be tried and punished as adults. These policies result in harsher sentences and possible incarceration with adults in state prisons, sparking controversy over the ethics of punishing juveniles so severely. Advocates of such punishments claim that teenagers know the difference between right and wrong and have the maturity to make competent decisions. Hanna Chiou makes this argument in the following viewpoint. She contends that the damage caused by a young criminal is equal to that caused by an adult and should result in the same punishment. Chiou works at Lynbrook High School in California and is a staff writer for Digital- High.com, an online forum created by and for teenagers in the...