Is Committing Crime During Adolescence a Common Phase in Normal Development?

Juvenile delinquency is a widely researched field as forensic psychologists seek to find answers to why many adolescents commit crime and to understand the connection with the cognitive developmental process during adolescence. This paper will address the issue of juvenile delinquency and focus on how the developing brain influences the engagement of criminal activity. This paper will argue that crime during adolescence is a common phase in normal development and that engaging in risk taking behaviour is typical of adolescents. The evidence explored includes the Australian Institute of Criminology statistics, the Cambridge Study of Delinquent Development, which identifies childhood risk factors for offending, and a Victorian longitudinal study, which investigates the types of offences juveniles engage in. This paper will also explore the theory of adolescent-limited offending, identify the age-crime curve and discuss external risk factors which include peer, parental and childhood influences on committing crime.

During adolescence a vast number of changes are occurring in the brain which partly explains teenager's predisposition for risk-taking behaviours. Fuller (2003) explains that the brain begins to slow down to its adult rate and eradicates approximately half of the synapses that were present in the brain prior to adolescence. Another important change is the large increase in hormones which largely effects growth, the ability to reproduce, mood, and metabolism. However, the most significant difference between an adolescent developing brain and an adult developed brain is the maturation or development of the frontal lobes (Fuller, 2003).

The frontal lobes are last to develop in the teenage brain. This is a highly important factor when considering the role of the frontal lobes and its effect on adolescent's behaviour. The frontal lobes are associated with impulse control, the ability to make rational decisions and consider consequences, to plan, to make good judgements and to suppress unacceptable social responses (Fuller, 2003). Therefore the level of development of the frontal lobes determines the likelihood of an adolescent participating in criminal or general risk taking behaviours.

Due to the slow development of the frontal lobes, other areas in the brain must compensate. Imaging studies have shown that because of the undeveloped frontal lobes, there is much more reliance on, and more activity occurring in the limbic system, which is associated with emotional responses (Fuller, 2003). Therefore, unlike adults, teenagers do not have the cognitive capabilities to reason and make rational decisions, think about consequences or control their impulses and must rely on emotional responses to largely determine their behaviour (Fuller, 2003). This cognitive developmental process results in the engagement of risk taking behaviours during adolescence, thus making it a natural phase in normal development.

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