New article alert: What can adolescent development research tell us about how to create a better legal system?

Dr. Cavanagh's latest article, Adolescent Development, Youth Violence, and Policy Options for a Developmentally Informed Legal System, is out now in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Youth violence cannot be understood apart from adolescent development and environmental conditions. Developmental science suggests punitive legal responses often overestimate youths’ long-term risk while failing to address the conditions associated with violence. We review the latest developmental and legal research to examine how legal policies are misaligned with adolescent development and discuss implications for more developmentally informed approaches.