Should Adolescents be Tried as Adults for Serious Crimes?

This essay discusses the psychosocial development of adolescents and factors that need to be considered while deciding on penalties for crimes committed by them. It elaborates on adolescents’ physical and cognitive development, the development of morality in the social context, and social factors such as responsibility and perspective.

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Introduction
The term adolescents, widely known as teenagers are referred to the stage of life that is
after puberty and before adulthood. This critical age is marked by several characteristics that
include biological growth and development, an unidentified status, enhanced decision making,
pressure and search for self. This age is considered to be highly critical for an individual since in
this age several hormonal as well as physiological changes take place. In today’s world,
adolescent are performing acts that are highly similar to that of an adult. However, according to
several researchers, there exist several differences between the brain of the teenagers as well as
that of fully developed adults (Casey, 2011). However, several researchers believes that on
arrival of his teenage, an individual develops enough capability to understand his or her
responsibilities and poses full control over their decision making. Hence when it comes to
serious criminal acts, an adolescent and an adult should be treated equally. Since, this is a
globally emerging topic that requires attention, the aim of this essay is to To understand whether
adolescents deserve to be tried as adults, it is imperative to understand the psychosocial
development of adolescents. These include understanding growth and development, risk taking
behaviors, and parenting influences. Research shows that growth development during
adolescence is very dramatic (Petersen, 1988). Several factors both in support of treating
adolescents as adults and vise versa will be discussed in this essay.
Thesis statement
The essay will argue on factors that need to taken in consideration while deciding on
penalty for crimes committed by adolescents. It would elaborate upon adolescents’ physical and
cognitive development (particularly, the prefrontal cortex), along with the development of
morality in the social context. In addition, by understanding social factors such as responsibility
and perspective, the essay will aim to throw light into this complex judgment of whether
adolescents should be treated as adults when involved in serious crimes.
Discussion
The First main Idea: Introduction of differences between being tried as an adolescent and
adult, and the resulting consequences from it.

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The mantra that is often followed is “adult time for adult crimes” in criminology, but
mitigation for adolescent offenders argues that adolescents are not culpable as adults as it is not
an all-black or white concept (Scott & Steinberg, 2008). The penalty is also dependent on
whether decision is passed in adult or minor courts as the latter involves more rehabilitation-
based outcomes.
According to several researchers, the judgment of weather adolescents should be
provided with the same punishment of that of an adult will completely depend on the severity of
the crime. In cases where serve crime has been performed by juvenile and thus his or her
presence will b highly dangerous for the rest of the society, the juvenile should be tried like an
adult. However (Piaget, 1936) argued that in majority of cases where a serious crime has been
performed by a adolescents it should be understood that high probability is there that the cruelty
has built up in the teenager not by his or her choice but due to any kind of mental disorder. In
such cases, physiological treatment of the criminal should be a better option compared to a
prison. According to Schroeder, Osgood & Oghia, 2010), lack of experience, lack of physical
and physiological development and lack of strong sense of use and effect can be considered as
other reasons behind discouraging treatment of juvenile criminals as adults.
Second main Idea: Difference between Adolescent and adult mental and physical
development
Developmental theories look at understanding within-individual factors that contribute to
crimes such as cognitive decision making processes and brain development (Casey, 2011).
Psychological influences such as early childhood temperaments, parenting styles also contribute
to development of anti-social personality patterns in children that are often predictive of serious
crimes.
From time immemorial neurologists lists are trying to understand the brain of a teenager.
As per the result obtained after intense result, there exist immense difference between the brain
of an adolescent and that of an adult (Scott & Steinberg, 2008). Mental development can be
defined as the development in psychology of an individual that take place through ages.
According to researchers, the development of sex hormones is highly responsible for the
impulsive behavior during adolescence. Due to puberty, majority of the teenagers are found to be

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seeking emotionally charged activities as well as risk taking behavior. Along with the hormonal
influence, several other reasons like sleep deprivation and emotional turbulence also results in
making unethical or ineffective decisions by the teenagers. Steinberg & Morris, (2001) stated
that teenagers should not be considered equivalent to adults in several aspects due to lack of
complete physiological differences. Lack of sleep can also be considered as a crucial reason
behind the difference in physiological structure between the teenagers and the adult. Sleep is a
highly crucial factor during the adolescent years since major brain development takes place
during the sleep due to the secretion of crucial growth hormone from the pituitary gland.
The decision making procedures of teenagers are completely different from that of an
adult due to the under-development of the prefrontal cortex of their brain. The Prefrontal cortex
is the part where all the rational decisions are made The neuron located at the prefrontal cortex
communicate with the neuron of other regions through synapses and thus playing a major role in
controlling emotional responses, weighting choice sand making judgments. In case of adults, this
region of the brain is fully developed and is connected to the decision making processes and
judgments (Aggarwal et al., 2014). However, the development f the mentioned part of brain
takes a long time to complete that it begins with the puberty and stretches until the mid-twenties.
Within the time it become highly challenging for an individual to control his or her emotional
turbulence and take a decision that is ethical and appropriate given a particular scenario.
Salekin, Grimes & Adams, (2015) argued that since the development of prefrontal cortex
initiates with the arrival of puberty, adolescents who are the verge of gaining adulthood are
supposed to possess a developed prefrontal cortex compared to that of a teenager who have just
hit puberty. Hence, while the latter should not be treated as an adult, the former should be treated
as the same. Hence, adolescents who re close towards adulthood should be treated as an adult
while those who have just hit puberty should be given more time.
Third main Idea: Understanding moral development theories- Piaget theory and
Kohlberg’s theory
According to Piaget’s theory (1936) child has a mental model of the world and he argued
that intelligence is a fixed trait and regarded that cognitive and moral development changed as
they get older. According to Piaget, the adolescent years are remarkable because youth move

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beyond the limitations of concrete mental operations and develop the ability to think in a more
abstract manner. It is time when moral values of an individual get developed and lack of which
impose negative impact on the characteristic of the same. For instance, a child with high moral
value is less likely to perform criminal act compared to a child who lacks moral values.
Sociological and cultural factors to be considered which involve environment the child
grows up in such as incidences of abuse, trauma, crime in neighborhood, substance use disorders
etc are increased risk for future crime behavior (Schroeder, Osgood, & Oghia, 2010; Steinberg &
Morris, 2001). According to a survey, 89.3 percent of the juvenile criminals possess background
that is comprised of trauma, abusive acts as well as substance abuse. Victims of violence are
vulnerable to a constellation of outcomes including dissociation, substance abuse, depression,
and PTSD Prolonged exposure to physiologically unhealthy social development reduces
humanity, moral values and ethics in an individual. Considering the fact that at adolescence an
individual does not possess enough experience or mental development to fight against his
circumstances and childhood memories, juvenile criminals are given minor punishments and a
chance to rectify their acts (Guarino-Ghezzi, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that adolescents should not be treated at
adults when it comes to juvenile criminal acts. The fact that that the physiological as well as
physical state of an individual who is at his or her adolescence is not as well developed as that of
an adult, the crime committed by teenagers should be handled in a different way compare to that
of an adult. Teenagers who have conducted criminal act should be provided to with moral values
and a healthier society to live in so that they can obtain the chance of developing moral values
and evolve as an adult with high ethics.

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