system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Minors should not be given a lighter sentence for CERTAIN crimes

I understand that kids and teens sometimes do dumb things that they regret in adulthood like stealing or doing drugs but I don't think they should be pardoned or be given a lighter sentence when those cimes are things like rape and intentional or premeditated murder.

I know people are gonna come on here saying things like "children don't understand the gravity of what they do" which I think is bogus most of the time when talking about sexual or violent crimes. Any normal 12 year old knows that rape and murder is wrong. No normal 12 year old kidnaps a 6 year old, rapes them, kills them, and then dumps the remains in a ditch. That is not the type of crime that an INNOCENT CHILD thinks of. Those are perverse thoughts that come from an ADULT mind. If you do an adult crime you should do adult time in jail.

In addition by making the excuse "oh, he just didn't know what he was doing was bad" you are also giving the benefit of the doubt to people like Ethan Couch, a rich boy that "suffers" from "afflueza." For those of you that don't know this guy was driving recklessly and drunk one day and ended up killing 4 people. His lawyer argued that rich kids like him have "affluenza" which means that he was so rich an spoiled that he didn't know that what he was doing was wrong because his parents never disciplined him. Therefore, he should be excused because he shouldn't face consequences for something he didn't know was wrong. Excuse me but your lack of self awareness is no one else's fault or problem which leads me to my other point.

I have seen many cases where a family is completely destroyed because their child was viciously raped or murdered. Their lives will never be the same. But because the kid who did the crime is 12 they get away with a slap on the wrist and get to live the rest of their lives freely because they got out of juvie for "good behavior." HOW IS THAT JUSTICE??? The result is exactly the same for the victim, they are 6 feet underground and will never get to grow up. So tell me why everything is forgiven because the perpetrator is a kid?
gpt
Children can understand that they've been told something is wrong without actually understanding the longterm consequences. Those are different things. The information "this is wrong" is one thing, the understanding that "I shouldn't do this because it hurts people" quite another.

That aside, when a child commits a crime, the big question is always "why". Your example - rape and murder - simply never even occurs to a normal child. This is not a question of an adult mind, because it's not possible for a 12 years old to have an adult mind, this is an abnormal child with abnormal thoughts, and you need to figure out what happened first. Is this kid even capable of empathy? Does this kid have significant psychological issues that diminish the capability to understand other people are, well, people? 

I don't think juvie is the answer for severe crimes of children in the first place. That's a wholly different issue. But saying "hey this kid who's clearly not right in the head, how about we just slap on more years in prison" is not the answer.