Developmental Neuroscience Commons^™

"And If Your Friends Jumped Off A Bridge, Would You Do It Too?": How Developmental Neuroscience Can Inform Legal Regimes Governing Adolescents, Michael N. Tennison, Amanda C. Pustilnik

Faculty Scholarship

Legal models of adolescent autonomy and responsibility in various domains of law span a spectrum from categorical prohibitions of certain behaviors to recognitions of total adolescent autonomy. The piecemeal approach to the limited decision-making capacity of adolescents lacks an empirical foundation in the differences between adolescent and adult decision-making, leading to counterintuitive and inconsistent legal outcomes. The law limits adolescent autonomy with respect to some decisions that adolescents are perfectly competent to make, and in other areas, the law attributes adult responsibility and imposes adult punishments on adolescents for making decisions that implicate their unique volitional vulnerabilities. As developmental neuroscientists …