Linked to where our emotions, reasoning, problem solving, and the ability to plan is stored; it’s scientifically proven that until we are around age 27, our frontal lobes aren’t fully developed.
That being the case, a lot of our decision making processes are reasonably questionable as, until the frontal lobe is fully developed, our ability to think things through (cognitively) is pretty much impaired because our frontal lobes are connected to sensory and memory centers through our entire brain and helps us determine how to use information (cognitively).
Unfortunately, a lot of the fckups that we experience in life (socially/interpersonally and personally) doesn’t permit us to fall back on that excuse (despite scientific proof about the function of the frontal lobe). That said, we kind of wing it through life-come what may. There are no laws to protect the under 27 that allows them to fall back on a non-fully functioning frontal lobe as their excuse (or defense) for their fckups.
According to psychologist G. Dick Miller (who testified for a teen who comes from an affluent/rich family in Texas), there is however, a condition one can suffer from called “Affluenza” where by definition; limits and boundaries not imposed on rich brats may cause one to engage in activities that because of no threshold or boundaries set, is a direct cause for a misunderstanding of consequences and repercussions stemming from acts or behavior.
Under the defense that he suffered from “Affluenza,” even with a blood-alcohol level of 0.24 (3x times the legal limit in Texas) a then, 16 year-old Ethan Couch escaped vehicular homicide charges after a drunk driving accident that killed four people: Hollie Boyles and her daughter Shelby Boyles who left their home to Breanna Mitchell (whose SUV broke down) Youth pastor Brian Jennings was driving past and stopped to help them all when a short time later, Ethan Couch’s vehicle struck a parked car which in turn, slid into another car headed in the opposite direction. All four people died when Couched plowed into them all.
Additionally, two people were riding in the bed of Ethan’s pickup truck and were ejected from the vehicle and severely injured. (One, no longer able to talk or move because of a brain injury and the other suffered internal injuries and broken bones).
As a result of the “Affluenza” argument being presented, Couch was basically slapped on the back of the hand with a wet noodle and made to sit on a couch like time-out (versus having to face what the average person would have had to face: jail time on a hard cot in a
