Juvenile Offenders Since the first juvenile court in 1899, there has been a debate on whether "juvenile offenders should be tried and sentenced differently than adult offenders" due to their questionable level of emotional and intellectual maturity. (Lawrence 2008 p.19). "Many researchers believe that by the age of fourteen, an adolescent has the same ability as an adult to make a competent decision (Gaines and Miller 2015 p.277). Studies being conducted at the Brain Behavior Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania disagree with these findings since the brain's frontal lobe is "involved in behavioral facets germane to many aspects of criminal culpability" (such as judgement) and an adolescents brain is constantly undergoing changes at this stage, causing them to be more reliant on gut instinct than intellectual thought (Gur 2002).Another study in 2003by the "Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice found that 33 percent of juvenile defendants in criminal courts have the same understanding of legal matters as mentally ill adults who had been found incompetent to stand trial"(Gaines and Miller 2015 p.277).
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Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012)).
In the case of Graham v. Florida, I believe he was capable of understanding the consequences of his actions and should have been treated as an adult in this case given the
Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012)).
In the case of Graham v. Florida, I believe he was capable of understanding the consequences of his actions and should have been treated as an adult in this case given the