Worst Offenders: A Case Study

This seems to be the whole fuss in the criminal justice system when juveniles commit an adult crime. Do they get off and get sent to Juvie? Or are they tried as an adult? How serious was the crime? Did they know what they were doing or how bad the consequences will be? In order to be charged as an adult for a serious crime, I think, they would have to fully understand what they did. They might not have understood fully, or at all, what the consequences of their crime was, but they knew what they were doing. In the 1st line of this article, Juvenile Justice in the U.S. Facts for Policymakers, it says: “Recent research shows that the human brain continues to develop through-out adolescence, with the prefrontal cortex - the section of the brain

When a juvenile enters an adult court, those courts view them no longer as an adolescent, but as an adult. However, they are not adults. Juveniles are actually far from it, not just physically, but mentally as well. It is known that the human brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex and the frontal lobe,

The article “Inside the Teen Brain’ by Marty Wolner, states that the human brain provides parents with shocking new evidence to possibly explain the sometimes irrational, illogical, and impulsive behavior of teenagers. Teenage years are radically more active and dynamic than they previously thought. So teenagers are left with most of the information reaching their brains being processed in the emotional part (limbic system). Information processed in the limbic system without benefit increases the processing in the prefrontal cortex. It may result in impulsive, egocentric, and maybe even risky behavior choices. The prefrontal cortex of the teenage brain does not excuse inappropriate or irresponsible behavior from the teen. The brain is not yet

When one compares the structure of the adult brain and the teenage brain, there will be several differences between the two. Adults have stronger connections from one nerve cell to another, and they all have essential communication skills. However, teenagers have more synapses and have weaker nerve connections. Also, their frontal lobes aren 't fully developed. This causes adolescence to have impulsive behavior and they typically do not recognize consequences in a situation. In the early twenties the brain becomes fully developed, so people are very good at making decision and they are able to think abstractly. There are many factors that contribute to the construction of the brain; some things help the brain develop normally, other things interrupt the process. There is a substantial amount of distinctions between the adult brain and the adolescent brain, and these includes behavioral and structural differences.

Considering the behaviors of an adolescent in the same manner as that of an adult is unfair. Juvenile brains are still developing, which means that they perform differently than adult brains (AACAP). Adolescents are more likely to act on impulse, get involved in fights, and engage in risky or dangerous behavior. They are less likely to think before they act or consider the consequences of their actions (AACAP). Weighing this scientific fact, it is unfair to assume that a juvenile committed a delinquent act with the same forethought of an adult. The mental development of a juvenile makes it difficult to prove that they established the mens rea equal to that of an adult guilty of the same offense.

The juvenile court was founded on the belief that juveniles just don't posses the cognitive capacity to fully understand the repercussions of their actions. The juvenile court used to use all its resources to focus on how to rehabilitate juveniles, now all the court proceeding are to establish the legal guilt of a juvenile offender and a small percentage of the legal process establishing adequate punishment. Research on the brain over the last twenty years gives us more knowledge about how children develop and think. Until recently scientists believed the brain was fully developed by age 12. With brain imaging research we now know that this is not true(4 walker). The May 10, 2004 issue of Time Magazine discusses the development of the teen brain in great detail. Dr. Ruben Gur, a professor and director of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania states that impulse control is the last area of the brain to develop and the first to fail as we age(4 walker). Teens do not think like adults due to the lack of impulse control and raging hormones. Hormones fuel emotional responses in teens. Drug use during these formative years damages brain development. How teens spend their time may affect the development of the brain(4 walker). Other research at the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that full

“I think it's important for us as a society to remember that the youth within juvenile justice systems are, most of the time, youths who simply haven't had the right mentors and supporters around them because of circumstances beyond their control,” (qtd. in Brainy Quotes) are wise words from Q'orianka Kilcher, a human rights activist. Many Americans feel adolescents should be held accountable for their behavior; however, trying them as if they are adults is not always the optimum course of action. Because the teenage brain matures from back to front, the prefrontal cortex is not established until mid-twenties. Ordinarily adolescents can be rehabilitated in order to avert future offending; yet when tried as an adult, all hope for rehabilitation is lost. A one time mistake will follow an adolescent around for the rest of his/her life, dramatically decreasing the opportunities for success. Trying adolescents as adults is an injustice due to their lack of rationality and potential for rehabilitation.

The development of a child’s brain relates to whether kid should be tried as adults. “The adolescent cannot really think things through at the same level as an adult” (Packard 1) says all thought they may not be able to think things through as an would adult; children are still able to determine the basics of what is right and what is wrong. Children are also “impulsive” (Packard 2) if they feel like something is a good decision they will just do it. They should not be tried as an adult because they are not thinking about their actions in the time but they still committed a crime and all of this should be accounted for when trying the child. There is a link “between adolescent emotions and brain development”(Packard 3).

After reading all four articles on juvenile justice it is clear that Paul Thompson who wrote the article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” (2001), has the strongest ethos. His main argument of the article was that teens should not be tried as adults in adult court system. Paul Thompson is an assistant professor of neurology at UCLA who studies brain growth as he states, “My own research group at UCLA...have developed technology to map the patterns and brain growth in individual children and teenagers” (5). This information that he is a neurology professor and has mapped teenage brains tells the reader that Paul is a very trustworthy and credible

The frontal lobe of the brain is involved in many things two of the most important things that relate to juvenile delinquency are their problem-solving skills and moral judgment skills. The myelination and pruning of the brain has been found to continue well into mid-20’s (Arnett,2017). This is one of the first lessons that lawmakers and people in society need to learn.

“Neuroscience and developmental psychology demonstrate that juveniles are developmentally different than adults” (Henry). All children are not as able as adults to make mature decisions because they have higher social impulses and emotional impulses. Children who have killed someone should not be prosecuted as adults. The human brain doesn’t fully develop in adolescents, the law in some states says children under 14 should not be tried as adults, and children have to be at least 18 to make big decisions, such as voting.

In my own opinion, I consider juveniles as immature because they lack the ability to recognize the long term impact of their actions as they have decreased levels of responsibility. Therefore, the justice system should not charge juveniles in adult legal system and sentence them as adults.Trying juveniles as adults exposes the young offenders to state penitentiaries up to life in prison without parole and even sentenced to death. This raises a question on how truly effective treating juveniles as adults are to the young offenders. As the crimes committed by juveniles increase, there has been an outcry from the public and affected to prosecute juveniles accused of serious crimes as adults. It is true that juveniles do

A number of researchers have suggested over years that teenage brains are not yet fully developed. At the National Institute of Mental Health researchers have studied the human brain ever since the stage of birth all the way to adulthood, to prove that the brain is not complete. When it comes to this topic, Americans assume that if a teenage commits a crime than they should not be held accountable because of their age. Yet they must consider that teens are capable of understanding the situation they are in, how they are looked upon as young adults,, and how they should learn from their mistakes.

However, that does not mean that we should have twenty- five be the set age for responsibility. It means that we should take into consideration the fact that adolescents are not fully capable to reach the level of understanding that adults do. It means we shouldn’t hold a sixteen year old to the same standards of responsibility as a twenty- one year old. In recent studies neuroscientists have used advanced brain- scanning technology to get a better view of how the human brain develops. Neuroscientist found that in most people, “ the prefrontal cortex and its links to other regions of the brain are not fully formed until age twenty- five .” (Greenblatt 5) This clearly shows how a teenager or someone who has not been introduced to legal rights might think completely differently and be largely less mature than an adult with a more developed brain and sense of

According to the article,”Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” , on paragraph seven the teenager’s brain is not aware about the the risk taking, self control and controlling impulses. This shows that teenages don’t have a clue on what they are doing until they do the crime. The lost of brain tissue is seen in every teen no matter how intelligent they are and therefore they can’t control what their about to do because the brain isn’t thinking properly and isn't thinking about the consequences their action will bring. People who disagree will bring up to have someone supervise the juveniles 24/7 and there already is and they’re called parents but if they’re being supervised a lot how will they become