Does Recent Research on Adolescent Brain Development Inform the Mature Minor Doctrine?
Does Recent Research on Adolescent Brain Development Inform the Mature Minor Doctrine?
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DOI：
10.1093/jmp/jht017
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发表时间：
2013-06-01
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
Steinberg, Laurence
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Steinberg, Laurence
美国最高法院关于制裁少年犯的裁决借鉴了大脑发育的科学，得出结论说，青少年天生就不像成年人那么成熟，这让他们受到的惩罚更少。这一结论与涉及成熟的未成年人原则的案件中的论点不同，在这些案件中，青少年被描绘为在做出医疗决定的能力方面与成年人相当。我试图调和这些关于青少年决策能力的明显不相容的观点。在以情绪唤醒和同伴压力为特征的条件下做出决定时，青少年确实不如成年人成熟，但15岁及以上的青少年在情绪唤醒最小化和不受同龄人影响的情况下与成年人一样成熟，这是医疗决策的典型条件。因此，适用于15岁及以上个人的成熟未成年人学说与最近关于青少年发展的研究是一致的。
US Supreme Court rulings concerning sanctions for juvenile offenders have drawn on the science of brain development and concluded that adolescents are inherently less mature than adults in ways that render them less culpable. This conclusion departs from arguments made in cases involving the mature minor doctrine, in which teenagers have been portrayed as comparable to adults in their capacity to make medical decisions. I attempt to reconcile these apparently incompatible views of adolescents' decision-making competence. Adolescents are indeed less mature than adults when making decisions under conditions that are characterized by emotional arousal and peer pressure, but adolescents aged 15 and older are just as mature as adults when emotional arousal is minimized and when they are not under the influence of peers, conditions that typically characterize medical decision-making. The mature minor doctrine, as applied to individuals 15 and older, is thus consistent with recent research on adolescent development.