Dead Teen Walking

The article "Dead Teen Walking" connects to White Fang because of some of the issues brought up in the article. For example, Nature vs. Nurture, is brought up in both White Fang and the article. Some people in the article state that if a child is mature enough to murder then they are mature enough to be punished for it. Others, thought that since most of the children on death row were subject to child abuse then it wasn't completely their fault and should be cut some slack. That is another thing that White Fang and "Dead Teen Walking" have in common. They both mention abuse being a major cause of destructive behavior. In White Fang, Beauty Smith was abused as a child and he then in turn abused White Fang. The children on death row were abused and in return they "killed."

I am completely against putting children on death row, expecially if they were abused in their home. Yes, adults are abused and committ crimes too, but they have been out of the household for a while and away from that environment. However, a child/teen, the abuse happened yesterday. Also, teens have hormones running haywire in their systems, add that to peer pressure, hecktic lives and you have a destination of disaster. I'm not saying that these are excuses for them to get away with their crimes, but for me it does get them out of the death penality.

Reading White Fang did not influence my opinion on this matter at all. I'm a very stubborn person and once my mind is made up, it stays that way. I never thought that the U.S. did have children on death row, but I thought that that was a good thing. I also thought that children being put to death in third world contries was insane so I never wanted it to happen here.