It’s actually quite difficult to settle on an age of responsibility that can be set in stone. Twenty-one is the more logical age of responsibility. It is neither too old or too young. The brain is close to being fully developed and before you reach twenty-one, you would have already learned the risks and the responsibilities of adulthood. Not everyone is the same, so it is difficult to find an age that fits all. At the age of twenty-one, you should almost be finishing up school and deciding what you want to continue doing.
Highering the age of responsibility could lead to less accidents and mistakes while entering adulthood. “The fact that every person is different and develops at his own pace doesn’t make the creation of policy any easier.” (Greenblatt 22).
It is more logical to change the age of responsibility to twenty-one because it would just make the world safer and fill it with more logical, smarter, and well developed actions. Right now twenty-one is the age when you get the right to drink. All of your other rights that take more risk and more responsibility at the age of eighteen. I understand that you should learn things when you’re younger so it is well absorbed, but eighteen just seems too young to have that much freedom.
You’re able to vote, enlist in the military, and be responsible for yourself at eighteen. Most eighteen year olds just entered college and most are not even sure about what they want to do after. If they’re still confused about what they want to become, then why should we let them chose the leaders of our country, if they can’t make choices for themselves?
References
- Adolescent Brain Development and the Age of Responsibilty
- Are Adolescents Less Mature Than Adults? Minimally Sufficient vs. Preponderance of the Evidence for Determining Exemption from Capital Punishment
- What is the prefrontal cortex? Brain area linked to self-control changes in teens
- The age of responsibility
- Psychiatry Online – Implications of Teen Brain Development for Substance Abuse Policy, Prevention, and Treatment
