Quoting Destinite:" Yep, it is a proven fact. The frontal lobe reaches full development at 21-22 (females) & things really start to 'click' if you will. "

Yup. I have even heard that the frontal lobe doesn't develop until as late as 25-27 years of age.

A fourteen year old is no where NEAR fully matured.

Quoting Back to Noob Status:" Although a teenager may know that murder is wrong and that murder results in death, many do not realize ... [snip!] ... so worked in trying to calm the baby down as well as quench her frustrations, she forgets that shaking the baby could kill it."

Okay but full grown adults don't put any more thought into killing than teenagers do. Adults do things out of passion also. And you're going to tell me that at 14 years old, you had NO idea that if you killed someone they would really be dead forever and you would go to jail for it?

Quoting Blair Waldorf (SuperKink):" I just said a teenager is NOT mature enough to drink and drive because they don't understand what will ... [snip!] ... people is wrong and that you go to jail for it or get the death penalty and that when someone dies, they don't come back."

so they're not mature enough to know what will happen when you drink and drive, but are mature enough to grasp the fact that murder is wrong?
a 14yr old is a CHILD. and should be treated as one. end of story.
they know murder is wrong, as is drinking and driving. but they are not capable of fully understand either situation unless they're A) in the situation first hand. B) are educated on said situation as they mature.

Quoting Blair Waldorf (SuperKink):" Okay but full grown adults don't put any more thought into killing than teenagers do. Adults do things ... [snip!] ... at 14 years old, you had NO idea that if you killed someone they would really be dead forever and you would go to jail for it?"

But adults have much more control over themselves. Teenagers lack a lot of the impulse control that adults have.

Quoting Blair Waldorf (SuperKink):" Okay but full grown adults don't put any more thought into killing than teenagers do. Adults do things ... [snip!] ... at 14 years old, you had NO idea that if you killed someone they would really be dead forever and you would go to jail for it?"

Honestly, at fourteen/fifteen, I didn't grasp DEATH in general, not just murder. I knew that death meant no more breathing, but the actual depth and finality of dying? No. I didn't have a clue.

But at twenty-one, I fully understand that by dying, there is no turning back the clock. There are no "sorries" or "do-overs" and that so many lives are affected by the death of one person. I bet this girl didn't even think about a life in prison with no possibility of parole or the death penalty. I doubt that she was thinking about how devastated her family would be to have not only lost their grandchild, but their daughter. From where I sit, I see a scared little girl who was overwhelmed by a very adult situation that resulted from a very adult action.


So many older mothers get scared w/fully developed brains, imagine how frightened she must have been as a kid.

Quoting ashleeoh:" But adults have much more control over themselves. Teenagers lack a lot of the impulse control that adults have."

 

Quoting Back to Noob Status:" Yup. I have even heard that the frontal lobe doesn't develop until as late as 25-27 years of age. A fourteen year old is no where NEAR fully matured. "

I've read the same thing in regard to males developing mid twenties. I'm sure that's true for some women as well.
No, she isn't fully matured at 14. I think it is INSANE to try her as an adult.
The funny part is that she could have easily gotten away with it if she thought it through like an adult.

Quoting Destinite:" I've read the same thing in regard to males developing mid twenties. I'm sure that's true for some women ... [snip!] ... try her as an adult. The funny part is that she could have easily gotten away with it if she thought it through like an adult."

Absolutely! I mean, hiding the body in a shoebox in her room just screams child-like thinking. An adult would have realized that the body would have created a stench.

And then she went to the emergency room to get treated for an MC. And adult would not have done that either.

Quoting ashleeoh:" But adults have much more control over themselves. Teenagers lack a lot of the impulse control that adults have."

Much more control? I didn't drink, have sex, smoke, or pierce anything until I was well over the age of 18 though offered all of that constantly throughout my teenaged years.

I know full grown adults who are way past the age of "frontal lobe development" who have no money in their bank account because they saw something at the store they wanted and bought it, forgetting that rent was due this week.

And if at the age of 14 you don't realize that death is final, then you've led a sheltered life. By the age of 14, I had lost multiple relatives and friends of the family. At the age of 16, one of my dear friends, who had moved over here from France in hopes of battling cancer, lost that battle with cancer. I didn't expect to see her walk through those doors again into class with me. I knew she was gone. Just as I knew that if I killed someone, it was just as final. And there were consequences for it. Hell, that's what the whole OJ Simpson trial was about. He killed his wife and was in trouble for it. It's not a hard concept to grasp. The bible says "Thou shalt not kill." I haven't seen where it says "Thou shalt not drink and drive." So I could see some teenagers struggling with that concept a bit more.

Quoting Back to Noob Status:" Absolutely! I mean, hiding the body in a shoebox in her room just screams child-like thinking. An adult ... [snip!] ... created a stench. And then she went to the emergency room to get treated for an MC. And adult would not have done that either."

Exactly my thoughts.

Quoting Blair Waldorf (SuperKink):" Much more control? I didn't drink, have sex, smoke, or pierce anything until I was well over the age ... [snip!] ... seen where it says "Thou shalt not drink and drive." So I could see some teenagers struggling with that concept a bit more."

How things are/were for you is not the same for everyone. My daughter's father died when I was 22 and I expected to see him walk through the door every day for a year. People are different. Biologically 14 year olds have less impulse control than adults. That doesn't mean they don't understand the difference between right or wrong, that doesn't mean that every 14 year old gives into peer pressure. People are still different from each other. But I know that at 14 my ability to reason and control my emotions and actions were much less than they are now at 25.

Quoting Blair Waldorf (SuperKink):" Much more control? I didn't drink, have sex, smoke, or pierce anything until I was well over the age ... [snip!] ... seen where it says "Thou shalt not drink and drive." So I could see some teenagers struggling with that concept a bit more."

this whole post of yours is "I, and I know people who", the frontal lobe thing is a fact, not just about people the scientists knew or their friends.

Absolutely not.