Most adolescents believe that they are mature and capable of making serious decisions and feel capable of managing their emotions in serious and stressful situations. However, this thinking is a normal part of adolescence. Research highlights significant brain development in adolescents and highlights the inability of these young adults to understand all of their irrational and emotional actions. The maturing adolescent brain is biologically and therefore psychologically incapable of understanding the long-term consequences of committing serious crimes. Although the basic concept of decision-making may seem simple to most, several factors affect how the brain transforms emotions into rational actions. First, the environment affects a young adult's perspective on what is acceptable in society for handling difficult and controversial situations. Rolf E. Muuss explains in his book Theories of Adolescence that "the influence of the environment stimulates, modifies and supports growth" (113) to emphasize that the atmosphere one finds oneself in has a direct correlation with one's abilities. decision making. The environment and family structure in which one lives and observes throughout the stages of development have permanent effects on that individual's personality, decisions, and future. Although many adults attempt to understand the thoughts behind an adolescent's irrational actions, few understand that biological age rarely corresponds to mental age in the adolescent stage of maturity. John E. Horrocks explains that “mental age is an index of the level of development of intellectual functions that a child has achieved at a given time” (443). The justice system should take into consideration the rate of brain development to see if the culprit...... middle of paper ...... education has a huge effect on separating the gap between the biological age and mental age. In summary, Offer, Rabshin, and Offer describe how the work of "investigators who have spent most of their professional lives studying troubled adolescents underscores the importance of a period of turmoil through which all adolescents must pass." in order to become mature adults” (181). Research has been carried out to distinguish the difference between the legal age and the age of the mind; society's job is to apply this knowledge to legal situations in order to grant adolescents fair trials. Works Cited Horrocks, John E. The Psychology of Adolescence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951. Muuss, Rolf E. Theories of adolescence. New York: Random House, 1962. Offer, Daniel, Melvin Sabshin, and Judith L. Offer. The psychological world of the adolescent. New York: basic books, 1969.