In the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers wrote, “all men are created equal.” Men is the plural of man and the dictionary defines man as “a human being regardless of sex or age; a person” (Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus). Whether a person is male or female; ten, fifteen or twenty years-old they are considered men On January 1, 1863 President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of slaves. This once again proved that the American government believed that people are created equal. Since the beginning, America has believed in equality for all people. . Yet, when criminals are treated differently because of their age, allowing a juvenile to receive a lesser punishment then an adult, while committing the same crime allows the law to go against a moral America’s founding fathers believed: equality for all people.

Our founding fathers may have believed in equality of men but is it fair? When it comes to criminals I believe this is fair and I am not alone in this belief. Over the past decade, nearly every state has passed laws making it easier for minors to be tried in adult courts. Many states will try juveniles as adults in court. In Vermont and Kansas the court is willing to try children as young as ten as adults (“Juvenile Justice”). The state law in Pennsylvania requires that anyone charged with murder to be charged as an adult. Later, it will be decided if a juvenile will be tried as an adult or juvenile in court (“Boy charged”). Currently there are about 2, 225 people serving life sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles (“Lionel Tate”). From 1973 until December 2000, seventeen men were executed for crimes they committed as juveniles (“17 Executed”). As juvenile crime continues to rise, the American law needs to return to its ground rule of all men being created equal and try juveniles as adults.