This is just one example of how the neighborhood a child grows up in influences the way a child acts and thinks. It doesn't help a child that they live in a bad neighborhood but they also many times have a bad family structure, if any at all. These children don't have anybody teaching them right from wrong, "They"re basically growing up without supervision, without a sense of values, without a sense of being disciplined," says Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at he University of South Florida in Tampa (Kaczor 6).
" Diminished capacities to understand and process mistake and learn from experience, to engage in logical reasoning, to control impulses, and to understand the reaction of others diminish their personal culpability." Atkins v. Virginia Supreme Court decision (2002) that banned the execution of the mentally retarded. "As supported by recent research, this argument applies equally to offenders under eighteen years of age" (Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Juvenile Death Penalty 1). Not only are these children being influenced by a bad society, they also are not mature enough to fully realize what they did. "People under eighteen can't pierce their bodies, or decide their own medical treatments, but it's perfectly okay to execute them" (Mark P. 2). Children are no given to same rights as an adult for the simple reason that they are not mature enough to take on the responsibilities that come with these rights. Then, why is society punishing them as if they were adults? "Pre-teens and teens today are expected to be fully aware of their actions and the responsibilities that go with them, yet they are not entrusted with many rights" (Mark P. 2). This isn't only hypocritical but extremely unfair. Children have a lot less capacity for reasoning than that of adults because their brains have not fully developed. "There is evidence that teenagers (and even more so pre-teenagers ) are less capable than adults of thinking through the consequences of their actions" (Kids and Crime 4).