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For both international and United States standards, special protection and treatment is deemed necessary for those under 18 accused of committing crimes. Yet, across America prosecutors and legislators are attempting to try more and more juveniles as adults. At the same time, law-abiding adolescents are subject to growing restrictions that clearly treat them as non-adults, including curfews, parental-consent requirements and a variety of zero-tolerance policies in schools. Since many exceptions to the rule exist, I believe …

…for committing crimes, we all start getting nervous and demand that our legislatures do something. In past generations, news of crime was not so instantaneous or dramatized. Legislators today should not feel that trying minors as adults is the answer to the problem. Trying minors as adults has sprung from the hysteria that has developed over recent decades. However, we need to keep our ideals in perspective and realize that children are children, not adults.