Terry A. Maroney
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199599844
- eISBN:
- 9780191725227
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599844.003.0014
- Subject:
- Law, Medical Law
This chapter first traces the ascendance of developmental neuroscience within juvenile justice. It then demonstrates that, despite optimistic projections, adolescent brain science has had, is likely ...
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This chapter first traces the ascendance of developmental neuroscience within juvenile justice. It then demonstrates that, despite optimistic projections, adolescent brain science has had, is likely to have, and should have, only moderate impact in the courts. Neuroscience can, however, play a limited role in juvenile justice policy. It reinforces the (once) noncontroversial idea that, as a group, young people differ from adults in systematic ways directly relevant to their relative culpability, deterrability, and potential for rehabilitation. Therefore, legal decision-makers exercising a policy-making role — usually legislatures but sometimes the courts — ought to consider developmental neuroscience one source among many upon which to draw when making legally relevant assumptions about adolescents as a group.Less
This chapter first traces the ascendance of developmental neuroscience within juvenile justice. It then demonstrates that, despite optimistic projections, adolescent brain science has had, is likely to have, and should have, only moderate impact in the courts. Neuroscience can, however, play a limited role in juvenile justice policy. It reinforces the (once) noncontroversial idea that, as a group, young people differ from adults in systematic ways directly relevant to their relative culpability, deterrability, and potential for rehabilitation. Therefore, legal decision-makers exercising a policy-making role — usually legislatures but sometimes the courts — ought to consider developmental neuroscience one source among many upon which to draw when making legally relevant assumptions about adolescents as a group.
Terry A. Maroney
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479816873
- eISBN:
- 9781479863402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479816873.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter discusses the “ the decade of the adolescent brain,” which refers to the continued cultural fascination with how science can explain teens' exasperating behavior, including criminal ...
More
This chapter discusses the “ the decade of the adolescent brain,” which refers to the continued cultural fascination with how science can explain teens' exasperating behavior, including criminal acts. This adolescent brain science came to occupy its current prominence within juvenile justice because of the confluence of three distinct phenomena: the advances in developmental psychology, the development of neuroscience, and the spirited dialogue of legal scholars and scientists over the legal implications of those scientific advances. Progress in developmental psychology put detailed empirical substance on a core tenet of parental experience since time immemorial: teens think and act differently. Advances in neuroscience showed that teen brains are physically changing and acting in ways that appear to dovetail nicely with those processes of behavioral maturation. Increasingly, these insights seemed obviously relevant to law.Less
This chapter discusses the “ the decade of the adolescent brain,” which refers to the continued cultural fascination with how science can explain teens' exasperating behavior, including criminal acts. This adolescent brain science came to occupy its current prominence within juvenile justice because of the confluence of three distinct phenomena: the advances in developmental psychology, the development of neuroscience, and the spirited dialogue of legal scholars and scientists over the legal implications of those scientific advances. Progress in developmental psychology put detailed empirical substance on a core tenet of parental experience since time immemorial: teens think and act differently. Advances in neuroscience showed that teen brains are physically changing and acting in ways that appear to dovetail nicely with those processes of behavioral maturation. Increasingly, these insights seemed obviously relevant to law.
