This particular piece stuck out to me because of the repetitive appeals to emotion, use of short sentences, and rhetorical language. Marjie quotes Ron Wilson, Democratic State Rep.,"You want to throw the adult book at kids? Fine, lower the voting age to fourteen". The idea of this was hysterical and completely fictitious but the more and more I thought about it the statement appeared as fair. Of course our society has never been completely fair and I'm not saying lowering the voting age would be a good idea but it would definitely even out the odds. Short sentences such as line 4,9,15, and 23 seem pretty bold to include in a article for the Sacramento Bee. "Hey, they're only kids" and "More lives, lost." and short but effective when appealing to emotion because it establishes a firm position and sends a statement. A statement that says there is no wiggle room and what I am saying is as simple as the words that are being used.
One idea stood out in most of these articles that always urged me to ask the same question and it comes up when authors talk about the tough on crime epidemic. They ask why there is still need for it when teenage crime has declined since 1966. But doesn't that mean that it has worked? True every once in a while a child will be sentenced to prison for an absurd amount of time but the justice system does this to make an example of the child and to send a message to every other child. Now this reasoning is harsh and some would say cruel but is that why it works or have kids not been acting out as much in the recent years?
I love that you brought up Ron Wilson's sarcastic suggestion of lowering the voting age to fourteen because if adolescents are going to be treated as adults inside the courtroom, it only seems right to treat them the same way outside of it as well.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, doubt that the law regarding juvenile sentencing is what has kept teenagers at bay. For example, most of us in the class were relatively ignorant of the existence of the law until it was brought up in class. How could we be afraid of a consequence we didn't even know about?
A statistic approach would have to take place in order to figure out if the life sentences the justice system established made an effect on the decline of juvenile crime. We can't be one-hundred percent sure if it has worked because there could be other factors that contributed to this decline. It wouldn't be the best idea to completely demolish juvenile sentencing because it could eventually lead them to committing crimes since they aren't going to be punished for it. I did find this article very effective as well, the author clearly stated his argument to make a point. He was able to make a connection with his audience through the use of rhetorical questions.
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