Eight teenagers have been arrested for the videotaped beating another girl. The 16 year old girl was spending time at her friend’s house for spring break when the other girls beat her repeatedly over the course of about 30 minutes. The victim suffered severe injuries including loss of hearing and eyesight, black eyes, bruises, and even a concussion, leaving her barely recognizable to her father when he saw her in the emergency room. The whole incident was videotaped so that the girls could post the beating on MySpace and YouTube in retaliation for the victim allegedly “trash talking” the girls.
The teens face various felony charges for battery, false imprisonment and kidnapping. It appears all eight teens involved will be charged as adults and could be sentenced to life in prison.
What is going on with our kids? A recent CNN news article on the topic mentioned a Justice Department report showing that by age 17, more than 1 in 5 girls said they had assaulted someone with the intent to cause serious harm.
Some argue that trying the teens in this case as adults with deter other teens from perpetrating this kind of violence. Defenders argue that these teens have a “disconnect” between their thoughts and their actions – that peer pressure and that kids these days think its funny to post violence like this on the internet.
What do you think? Should these teenagers be tried as adults for their violent beating of their peer? Or, should they be given a warning and counseling? What about the victim? What amount of justice does she deserve?
Should these teens be tried as adults and face prison time?
I feel that if these teens could come up with the idea that they would do this as well as put it on the internet they knew what they were doing and should be tried as adults, when it comes to the age factor, what is really age anyway,some adults in our society are not half as smart as someone under the age of 18 but because they are under 18 they are not capable of thinking like an adult, in older time s I might have given this to you but with all the information out there today, no way they knew full well what they were doing and that as a society would probably get just probation or a slap on the hand, a laughable offence to teens now adays, there is really no accountability for them societys uses excuses like well they had a bad child hood, or this or that well mine wasnt a cake walk and I dont do these crimes nor would I. Teens now adays think they can get away with anything and no reprecutions well I think in order to gets the reins back on our children show them that there is reprecutions and accountable for there actions.
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After watching this disturbing footage again and again thanks to online news media and youtube, I believe that these teens need to get a heavy dose of reality. If that means trying them as adults then so be it. It is a shame that this kind of thing happens often, but maybe this is a chance for the justice system to send a message that this kind of act will not be tolerated.
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