Teenagers Should Not Be Treated As Adults
Teenagers should not be treated as adults when they are mentally undeveloped and are not capable of thinking twice about the consequences to their actions. Teenagers are at a sensitive stage in their life where thinking twice about a decision is not taken seriously, they become numb to what people advice and act solely on natural impulses.
In “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” by Paul Thomson, a research group at the University of
California has noticed a “pattern of brain growth in individual children and teenagers.” He states that,
“the biggest surprise in recent teenbrain research is the finding that a massive loss of the brain tissue occurs in the teen years.” Paul Thompson acknowledges that adolescents have some sort of impairment in their brains since “brain cells and connections are only being lost in the areas controlling impulses, risk taking, and self control.” Thompson’s theory of brain cell research is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problems of teenage impulses, such as a child committing homicide.
When it comes to the topics of murder, most people will readily agree that the person being tried will be sent to jail. Where this agreement ends, however, is on the question of whether a teenager should be sent to jail for committing a crime. Whereas some are convinced that if a person, doesn’t matter the age, commits a crime they should immediately pay the consequences, but others maintain that if a child commits a crime they should not be treated as an adult because of their young and undeveloped mentalities. “On Punishment and Teen Killers” by Jennifer Jenkins a teenager was found guilty for murdering a couple in Chicago of 1990. This young boy reacted upon his impulses simply because he wanted to “see what it would feel like to shoot someone.” Jenkins shares that she
“understands how hard it is to accept the reality that a 16 or 17 year old is capable of forming such a requisite criminal intent.” Jennifer
In “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” by Paul Thomson, a research group at the University of
California has noticed a “pattern of brain growth in individual children and teenagers.” He states that,
“the biggest surprise in recent teenbrain research is the finding that a massive loss of the brain tissue occurs in the teen years.” Paul Thompson acknowledges that adolescents have some sort of impairment in their brains since “brain cells and connections are only being lost in the areas controlling impulses, risk taking, and self control.” Thompson’s theory of brain cell research is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problems of teenage impulses, such as a child committing homicide.
When it comes to the topics of murder, most people will readily agree that the person being tried will be sent to jail. Where this agreement ends, however, is on the question of whether a teenager should be sent to jail for committing a crime. Whereas some are convinced that if a person, doesn’t matter the age, commits a crime they should immediately pay the consequences, but others maintain that if a child commits a crime they should not be treated as an adult because of their young and undeveloped mentalities. “On Punishment and Teen Killers” by Jennifer Jenkins a teenager was found guilty for murdering a couple in Chicago of 1990. This young boy reacted upon his impulses simply because he wanted to “see what it would feel like to shoot someone.” Jenkins shares that she
“understands how hard it is to accept the reality that a 16 or 17 year old is capable of forming such a requisite criminal intent.” Jennifer
Cited: Garinger, Gail. “Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences.” Boston. 14 March 2012 Jenkins, Jennifer. “On Punishment and Teen Killers.” Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. 2 August 2011. Online. Thompson, Paul. “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains.” Sacramento Bee. 25 May 2001. Online.