Discuss what neuroscience has contributed to the understanding of the age crime curve. Include the four key messages highlighted in your book.
What will be an ideal response?
The age-crime curve has long puzzled criminologists, however, with the tremendous advances made by the neurosciences over the past 3 decades, we are in a much better position to understand adolescent offending. Neuroscience research has thrown light on why there is a sharp rise in antisocial behavior in adolescence across time and cultures, and some very important court decisions in juvenile justice such as the abolition of the juvenile death penalty, have been influenced by this research. What has emerged from this research is that the immaturity of adolescent behavior is matched by the immaturity of the adolescent brain.
The onset of puberty also brings with it a 10- to 20-fold increase in testosterone in males, a hormone linked to aggression and dominance-seeking, and brain chemicals that excite behavior increase in adolescence, while chemicals that inhibit it decrease. Many other events are reshaping the adolescent’s body and brain during this period that lead to the conclusion that there are physical reasons why adolescents often fail to exercise rational judgment and why they tend to attribute erroneous intentions to others. When the brain reaches its adult state, a more adult-like personality emerges, with greater self-control and conscientiousness. Overall, it is important to understand these biological processes.
(1) Much of the behavior characterizing adolescence is rooted in biology intermingling with environmental influences to cause teens to conflict with their parents, take more risks, and experience wide swings in emotion. (2) The lack of synchrony between a physically mature body and a still maturing nervous system may explain these behaviors. (3) Adolescents’ sensitivities to rewards appear to be different than in adults, prompting them to seek higher levels of novelty and stimulation to achieve the same feeling of pleasure. (4) With the right dose of guidance and understanding, adolescence can be a relatively smooth transition.?
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What will be an ideal response?
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