Teens Who Commit Violent Crimes
Teens Commit Violent Crimes and Aren’t Held Accountable If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. How would you feel if a teen that committed murder was in the same class as your son or daughter, or any other teenager that you care about? That would be pretty scary. Being a teen myself, I would not want to be surrounded by anyone that is potentially harmful. The White House held a televised conference on adolescent development, and they discussed about whether teen’s brain development disadvantages could explain their “impulsive, erratic behavior”. Paul Thompson wrote an article titled “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains”. He explained how we lose brain tissue in our teen years and how it could possibly affect our impulses, risk-taking, and self control. Teens who commit violent crimes should be tried as adults because even though their brain is not fully developed, they should still have the capability to control themselves. If a teen commits a violent crime they should not be given sympathy just because they are going through changes and are not fully aware of the entire judicial system. In Greg Krikorian’s article “Many Kids Called Unfit for Adult Trial” he explains the mindset of a teenager compared to an eighteen year old. “Research showed that the performance in reasoning and understanding for youth ages sixteen and seventeen did not differ from those at least eighteen years of age” (Krikorian 39). Just because you have yet another birthday and hit the big eighteen, doesn’t mean you suddenly get the knowledge of the judicial system and an amazing brain magically inserted into you. How you mature and control your actions is completely up to the person. Every single person can make up a reason as to why they should not be held accountable for their actions, but that doesn’t make whatever they did ok. In the article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains.” Paul Thompson discusses about the brain tissue we lose and how it could possibly affect our actions.