Kiley 1

Biz Kiley

Kids Who Kill

Sue Bourke and Billie Dziech

13 April 2017

Response #10

The past two weeks of assigned reading and a field trip to the Hamilton

County Youth Center have left me with much to think about. The first work I

read was chapters five and six of Brainwashed by Satel and Lilienfeld, which

mainly discussed the developing teenage brain in relation to crime and how

neurolaw" is affecting how some scientists and criminal justice professionals

view the concept of free will. The former seems especially relevant when

reflecting on our tour of the youth center. While I dont believe that

teenagers lack all responsibility for their crimes, I do believe that their

forming brains may make them more susceptible to commit a crime without

fully understanding the gravity of their actions. Satel and Lilienfeld discuss

this phenomenon, stating, Teens frontal lobes are also under construction.

Superfluous synaptic connections are being pruned in much the way a

gardener cuts back tangled branches a process believed to allow the

remaining neurons to function more efficiently. The teen amygdala is still

another work in progress. Its sensitivity to stress and threats makes it a

twitchy accelerator in conjunction with the frontal lobes imperfect brakes.

Finally, some researchers believe that the adolescent reward system is more
 Kiley 2

reactive than adults, presumably stoking teenagers attraction to

pleasurable, sensation-boosting activities including the approval of peers

(99-100). The combination of the restructuring of the late adolescent brain

with the heightened reward response makes teen much more at risk to break

the law and harm others. Because of this fact, I do believe that juvenile

offenders should not be treated the same way as adult criminals as they

have somewhat less responsibility for their impulsive actions and more of a

chance of being rehabilitated while their brains are still forming. I believe the

Hamilton County Youth Center does a great job of making sure their youth

offenders are being taken care of and encouraging them to continue their

studies in the hopes that these children will feel protected and are able to

look to the future while learning to take responsibilities for their crimes and

receiving an adjudication from a juvenile court judge.

In addition, Satel and Lilienfeld discuss different takes on the concept

of free will and to what extent all criminals are culpable for their actions.

There is a school of thought called determinism in which certain scientists

believe that every human action is predetermined by the brain. It is the

opposite of free will. Those who subscribe to this school of thought believe

that criminals are simply victims of neuronal circumstances and that the

criminal justice system should not focus on punishment, but instead on fining

and fixing the neurological defect that caused the criminal to commit the

crime. They equate a human criminal to a broken down car. When a car

breaks down, we do not scream at or punish the car but instead try to
 Kiley 3

pinpoint the issue and repair it. This idea is troubling to me, as it seems

extremely dehumanizing to equate human beings to machines with

predetermined actions and destinies. I strongly believe that humans have

free will and that, barring severe mental illness, are mostly if not entirely

responsible for their actions, especially those that are criminal.

This concept of neuroscience replacing the idea of free will is discussed

in The End of Evil by Ron Rosenbaum in which Rosenbaum writes about the

modern day scientists that are aiming to transition the idea of evil from

something metaphysical to something tangible. The concept I found most

interesting was that of Simon Baron-Cohen, who explains evil not as an

energy itself, but instead as an absence of empathy. However, this idea

minimizes the weight of good just as it minimizes the weight of evil. The

article discusses mass murderers such as Hitler and Breivik, stating: if they

are not evil, the world doesn't make sense, and personally I agree.

Furthermore, I read The Case for Revenge by Thane Rosenbaum

which believes criminals should be held accountable for their grievances and

that revenge is a normal, healthy human desire. Rosenbaum claims that our

entire justice system is simply an ordered system of revenge and that we use

the word justice to avoid the shameful connotation applied to the word

revenge. Although we shame those who give into their urges for

vengeance, it is clear that humans subscribe to a world governed by an eye

for an eye mentality, which is why revenge movies such as True Grit are
 Kiley 4

instant box office hits. This idea of our justice system as a controlled, precise

instrument for revenge is interesting and I believe is to be somewhat true.

However, this idea would hold juvenile offenders to the same standards as

adult criminals as their age bears no difference on the crime they committed

or the repayment due to the victim according to the law of the talion. I

disagree with this idea, as I believe that youth criminals are still able to be

rehabilitated and should therefore receive lesser punishment so as to not

fully crush the chances of a future as a law abiding citizen. It is clear that

while the Hamilton County Youth center holds its inhabitants responsible for

their crimes while they are awaiting an adjudication, it is constantly fostering

their growth as well with daily school and activities, reassuring them that

they will eventually reenter society and be a contributing member of it.