Adolescent Brains

Legal and other types of organizations opposed to the execution of juveniles are drawing increasingly on the contributions of scientific research demonstrating the difference between adolescent and adult brains, according to Florida-based attorney Stephen Harper. He is coordinator of the Juvenile Death Penalty Initiative, a coalition of legal organizations—including the American Bar Association—opposed to juvenile executions.

Below are excerpts from a statement by the coalition citing scientific research that demonstrates adolescents are developmentally different from adults:

“The social and behavioral sciences have long known that adolescence is a transitional period of life where cognitive abilities, emotions, judgment, impulse control, and identity are still developing. Teenagers, by their very nature, are less mature and less able to assess risk, make good decisions, and control anger. Similarly, they are more susceptible to peer and other external influences. These traits are particularly common among the troubled youth who become embroiled in our justice systems during adolescence. The abilities of these youth to survive adolescence with their life prospects intact are also often compromised by learning disabilities, behavior disorders, mental illness, abuse, neglect, and trauma.

“Moreover, recent advances in medical research reveal that the normal adolescent’s brain is developing even into late adolescence. Utilizing the new technologies of brain-imaging devices, scientists have found that those areas of the brain that regulate self-control, emotions, judgment, intelligence, and identity (the frontal and temporal lobes and corpus callosum) do not stop developing until at least the age of 18. These findings contradict previously held beliefs that the brain was fully developed by 14. That led some to the erroneous conclusion that teenagers were therefore fully responsible for their actions and not likely to benefit from rehabilitative interventions. However, we now know that because their brains are not fully mature, they do not handle social pressure, instinctual urges, and other stressors the way adults do. This makes adolescents more prone than adults to immature, reckless, and dangerous behavior.”