Teenage Brain Crimes

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Is it fair for children as young as seven to spend their whole lives in prison? According to justice, Elena Kagan " Mandatory life without parole for a juvenile precludes consideration of his chronological age and its hallmark features". Although some of these children committed heinous crimes, they are just children and they lack maturity. Some of many reasons children should not be tried as adults are: the lack of mental capacity in adolescents, abusive homes, and peer pressure. Even though adolescents are thought to be more mature as they enter the teenage years, but according to starling finds on teenage brains by Paul Thompson (The Sacramento Bee) states that " in recent years teen-brain research is the finding that a massive loss of brain tissue occurs in teen years"(4); which means that the adolescent does not have he brain capacity to know the difference between right and wrong. This article as well states that " Gray matter, which brain researchers believe support all our thinking and emotion is purged at rate one percent to percent a year"(7). This theory supports of finding mentioned in the teenage brain produced by frontline …show more content…

In the article "Greg Ousley is Sorry For Killing His Parents. Is That Enough" by Scott Anderson in the New York Times states how "all [Greg] ever thought about was murder and suicide"(5). This shows how the children that grow up in abusive homes end up potentially feeling. Most juveniles that committed heinous crimes toward their families is because there was emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in the household; like Jacob Ind, Greg Ousley, Nate Ybanez, and much more. For example Nate Ybanez household was full of fear and sexual abuse by both parents, such things lead kids that can not find to help with no solution but to either kill themselves or their abusive

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