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IELTS Essay Question (2013-11-09 China): Young Criminals
Sample Answer by Jeenn Lee Hsieh
谢振礼 ielts360toefl@hotmail.com
IELTS Essay Topic 论说文真题：
>Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Young people who commit serious crimes should be punished in the same way as adults. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience to support your opinion.
谢振礼 IELTS Example Essay 实验范文：
As the wind of juvenile delinquency is blowing, serious crimes committed by young offenders should not be taken lightly, but they should be penalized in the same way as adults. From 14 to 17, a child must be legally considered to be responsible for having done something seriously wrong. That is to say, young offenders should be punished as severely as grown-ups.
On the one hand, leniency towards serious offenders means that juvenile delinquency would be out of control and that too many people will be forced to live in fear of them. In the face of mounting youth crime, "a slap on the waist" is not the way to punish dangerous criminals because that way seems to allow breeding and upcoming of serial murderers and rapists. A crime is a crime, so when young offenders were aware that they were doing something seriously wrong, they should receive prison terms corresponding to the degrees of their crimes, rather than to the levels of their ages. Otherwise, young offenders would get the wrong message and would never learn the lesson of discipline. This being the case, it is feared that the chances of young people committing will increase. The problem of juvenile delinquency will therefore become bad to worse, posing a constant threat to individuals as well as the society as a whole.
On the other hand, the incarceration of young criminals in adult prisons might have an extremely destructive effect. This means that when minors commit violent crimes, they should be treated differently from adults. It is argued that prison is not effective as a punishment nor a deterrent for juveniles, instead it would harden a young person who might otherwise recover. That is probably why it is widely accepted that criminal justice systems usually punish young boys and girls having the trouble with the law in a different way to adults. In other words, rehabilitation is the answer. So, there should be a different way for juvenile criminals because prison for adults is too violent while rehabilitation is more possible in an environment that is conductive education, where young people convicted of serious offences can gain an insight into their behavior to produce a positive transformation.
To sum up, serious crimes being the same, there should be no different types of punishment between younger criminals and older criminals. The age for criminal responsibility should be set at 14 and over. Unless criminal justice systems to give a strong warning to young criminals, all the efforts to reduce youth crime rates would be like "catching the wind". (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsiehielts360toefl@hotmail.com )
