blog




  • Essay / The Pros and Cons of Juvenile Punishment - 1726

    According to Nobel Prize winner and neuroscientist Roger Speer (in Fincher, 1982; 23), the human brain – a gelatinous mass shaped like a walnut, about the size of a grapefruit, three pounds the cloth – is the most complex, impressive and fascinating entity in the universe; he says, “In the human head there are forces within forces within forces, unlike any other half cubic foot of the universe we know of” (Walsh & Bolen, 2012). The brain is where genetic disposition and environmental experiences are integrated and they become one as the brain physically captures them into its circuitry (Walsh and Bolen, 2012). Within our brain, which makes up 2% of our body mass and consumes 20% of the body's energy, are our thoughts, memories, desires, emotions, intelligence, and creativity (Walsh and Bolen, 2012). Instead of necessarily thinking for itself, the brain is an adaptive organ that calibrates to environmental experiences (Walsh & Bolen, 2012). With this, most miners are unable to evaluate the consequences of their actions because they have not gained the environmental experience necessary to fully understand and evaluate the depth of their decision. Even though most children retain what they see on television and what they experience in video games, a phenomenon that can have disastrous effects. In these various video games and television shows, characters commit crimes, such as theft or even murder, and there may be little or no repercussions demonstrating that the individuals' actions were wrong and punishable. According to Walsh and Bolen, the environment, whether good or bad, conspires with our genes to shape our brain into its adult form, but with