Academic IELTS Writing Task 2 Topic (in April, 2015) & Band 9.0 Sample Essay

IELTS Writing Actual Test & Band 9.0 Argumentative Essay – Topic: Juvenile Criminal

Young people who commit crimes should be treated in the same as as adults who commit crimes. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Band 9.0 Sample:

There is an opinion that young offenders should be held accountable for their actions just as adults. While I find this viewpoint of some people justifiable to some extent, I also argue that treating both young and mature lawbreakers equally may prove to have adverse effects.

On the one hand, I can understand why young age should be no deterrent to the way of dealing with criminals. If these juvenile delinquents were easily pardoned in place of receiving strict punishments as adults, they would not become fully aware of the serious consequences of their crimes. Therefore imposing appropriate punishments could prevent them from conducting illegal actions in the future. Besides, young perpetrators usually receive lighter sentences that they deserve, which is apparently an injustice to the victims. In Vietnam, there was a well-known case in which a teenager murdered almost every member of a family deliberately, escaping the death sentence due to being a few months under the responsible age.

On the other hand, I am convinced that it is better for juvenile criminals to be tried in a different court from that for adults. Firstly, children are proven not to have sufficient intellectual or moral capacity to understand the outcomes of their misdeeds, so they lack the necessary conditions to be trial defendants as grown-up people. Secondly, when given a second chance, these underage convicts can have an opportunity to successfully rehabilitate and learn a valuable lesson. Thirdly, children can be negatively influenced by some bad role models, which should also be taken into consideration to give them a fair trial.

In conclusion, breakers of laws should not be spared of punishments, but I believe young offenders should be dealt with differently from adults.

(276 words – by IELTS Teacher, Bao Nguyen)

Useful Expressions:

• Accountable: responsible for your decisions or actions and expected to explain them when you are asked
  ==>The state spends taxpayers’ money and should be held accountable.
• Deterrent to something: a thing that makes somebody less likely to do something
  ==> There is no effective deterrent for these young criminals.
• Perpetrator: a person who commits a crime or does something that is wrong or evil
  ==>We will do everything in our power to bring the perpetrators to justice.
• Deliberately: done in a way that was planned, not by chance
  ==>I suspected that he was being deliberately ambiguous.
• juvenile criminals: a criminal who is under 19
  ==> Finding ways to deal with juvenile criminals is a perplexing problem.

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