As the U.S. Supreme Court pre­pares to hear argu­ments in Roper v. Simmons regard­ing the death penal­ty for juve­nile offend­ers, researchers have found crit­i­cal evi­dence that the brain con­tin­ues to change dra­mat­i­cal­ly dur­ing ado­les­cence. This research may help explain the impul­sive, often irra­tional behav­ior seen in some teenagers. ​“Kids may know the dif­fer­ence between right and wrong, but that does not stop them from doing dumb and dan­ger­ous things that they would nev­er think of doing as adults,” stat­ed David Fassler, a child psy­chi­a­trist and pro­fes­sor of psy­chi­a­try at the University of Vermont. Fassler and oth­er psy­chi­atric experts base their state­ments on brain research that shows that the front lobe, the part of the brain that con­trols rea­son, devel­ops last. Researchers at David Geffin School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, Harvard Medical School, the National Institute of Mental Health, and else­where have con­duct­ed a series of stud­ies in recent years that fol­low the devel­op­ment of the brain from child­hood to adult­hood. This research has found that the frontal cor­tex, the part of the brain that con­trols the most advanced func­tions of the brain and acts as the body’s ​“CEO” by allow­ing humans to plan, antic­i­pate con­se­quences, con­trol impuls­es, pri­or­i­tize thoughts and think in the abstract, con­tin­ues to devel­op for indi­vid­u­als into their 20s. Prior to the brain’s full devel­op­ment, a more prim­i­tive part of the brain, known as the amyg­dala, con­trols deci­sion-mak­ing. Brain-devel­op­ment research has led a num­ber of nation­al men­tal health orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, to plan to joint­ly file a legal brief on behalf of juve­nile offend­er Christopher Simmons to the Supreme Court. The Court will hear the case this fall. (The Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2004) See Juvenile Death Penalty. See also DPIC’s Web page on Roper v. Simmons.

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