We all know young adults don’t always make the best choices. The science behind why might surprise you. -An interview with Cathryn Crawford.

Today, Cathryn Crawford is a public defense attorney with decades of experience under her belt, who spends her days seeking justice for folks on Texas’ overpopulated Death Row.

But before she became a voice for justice, Cathryn was a teenager with a skateboard and the need for speed.

”Something my friends and I would do is wait at the bus stop with our skateboards. When the city bus came, we’d grab on and ride, letting the bus pull as fast as we could go. It was incredibly stupid, but we didn’t really think about that. The danger wasn’t on our minds - just the thrill.?

Young people are like that. Most of us have a memory similar to that one. And most of us don’t think the reckless, dangerous, or just plain stupid things we did then have much to do with the adults we were lucky enough to grow up into.”

That’s because, according to neuroscience, the impulsivity, recklessness, and reactivity that so often define young adult behavior aren’t personality traits - they’re hallmarks of a developmental phase.?

As a lifelong student of youth and emerging adult behavior and an advocate for young people in the criminal justice system, Cathryn has a uniquely thorough perspective on the way the science of neurodevelopment influences both the system and the youth who navigate it. She’s worked with the National Juvenile Defender Center, conducting studies on indigent defense throughout the country, and led countless trainings on adolescent brain and behavioral development. Her work has afforded her the opportunity to get to know juvenile and adult defenders all over the country - including the young people she represented during her time as an attorney with us here at Lawndale Christian Legal Center (LCLC).

One thing Cathryn knows for certain: a young adult brain is very different from a mature adult one.

“What we know now is that the brain develops from back to front.” explains Cathryn. “In the very back, we have the amygdala, which is the instinctive, animalistic fight or flight control center of our brain. The frontal lobe is where we do all our executive functioning - risk assessment, long-term planning, social skills, impulse control, and emotional regulation.?

As a neuroscientist friend of mine describes it: between the amygdala and the frontal lobe is a kind of super highway carrying information from back to front. In young people, that highway is under construction. The connection is slower and unreliable.They take detours we might not expect. Things don’t always get where they’re going on time.

Say that you, an adult over 26 with a fully constructed super highway, are talking to someone at a party and they insult you. You might immediately think: “I am going to punch this guy.”? But then your frontal lobe kicks in, and you think: “Wait - this guy is my boss. I can't punch him, because the consequences will be significant and it’s also misaligned with my values to respond with violence.” In that situation, nobody gets punched.

When young people think “I am going to punch this guy,” they’re much more likely to be swinging their fist before the message reaches the frontal lobe and that more reasonable thinking kicks in.

And all of this makes sense, right? It's why we have teenage pregnancies. It's why kids drink at parties, even though they know they shouldn't. Young people are marked by impulsivity. They’re susceptible to peer pressure. They’re less likely to plan for the future or to engage in risk/reward assessment. They focus on the immediate, and they don’t think about consequences.”

The criminal justice system has long recognized the developmental differences between adults and kids under the age of 18.

Developmental science is the driving force behind landmark Supreme Court rulings like Roper v. Simmons, which determined in 2005 that it was unconstitutional to execute people who were under 18 when they committed a crime, and 2012’s Miller v Alabama, when the court ruled that mandatory life without parole sentences for juvenile homicide offenders are also unconstitutional.

But it’s only within the last decade or so that advances in neuroscience have demonstrated the adolescent development phase doesn’t wrap up when a child turns 18. Instead, it appears that developmental adulthood kicks in closer to age 26.

Knowing that young adults in the criminal justice system under 26 are dealing with different developmental brains than their older counterparts is one thing. Changing the system to reflect that truth is another.

“Just because the court deems that a defendant becomes an adult when they turn 18 doesn’t mean they actually become an adult at 18,” Cathryn affirms. “But it isn’t always easy to convince a judge that the 24 or 25 year old they see before them, who looks like an adult, still has more in common with a teenager than a 30-year-old. Even though the science is there to support it.”

Courtroom perceptions aside, the reality is scientifically inescapable: how a person behaves before the age of 26 is likely to be as much about how young they are as it is about who they are. The same way we all remember making decisions in our teens or early 20s that we might not repeat today, young adults are able and likely to grow out of patterns of criminal behavior - especially when they are given rehabilitation opportunities, support, education, and guidance.

Cathryn describes a research study called Pathways to Desistance which followed young people who had committed crimes as juveniles. “For the majority of them, around the time they turned 25 or 26, they stopped engaging in most, or all, risky and criminal behavior. When a young person engages in an act, it's not a sign of antisocial behavior or criminality, as much as immaturity. With the proper support, young people - especially those who have experienced trauma prior to their offenses - can undergo extraordinary healing and transformation. They can become very productive members of society and contributors to their communities. Which means we have to take a hard look at every stage of the legal proceedings, from where they’re charged to whether or not they are detained, how we sentence and what support we provide after release.”

Clinical psychologist and forensic psychiatry specialist Dr. Kendell Coker, who has dedicated much of his career to the study of trauma, juvenile delinquency, and violence, echoes Cathryn’s call to reconsider the way we think about the behavior of teens and young adults.

“Research on juvenile offenders reveals that anywhere between 75% to 90% of them are likely to cease their delinquent behaviors when they reach adulthood,” Dr. Coker explains. “Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for people to think of age as an aggravating factor rather than a mitigating one. For instance, if someone hears that a 14-year-old committed a crime, they might think ‘if this kid is doing this now, imagine what they will do when they get older.’ Based on the research, we should instead be reminding ourselves that, because this person is young, they are likely to grow out of this behavior.?

By treating young people under 26 like adults, we run the risk of stunting their psychological growth and the healthy maturation process that, more often than not, ends the behaviors that landed them into the criminal justice system.”

Restorative justice programs around the country are proving, every day, that better outcomes are possible when we provide better circumstances for young adults who become entangled in the criminal justice system.

Right here in North Lawndale, LCLC’s holistic approach to justice for people under 26 has successfully reduced the recidivism rate for our clients to just 15% - about 60% below the national average.

In 2025, LCLC will open the Dr. Dennis Deer Community Justice Center, a full-time housing facility designed to give young people under 26 the chance they deserve to feel safe, to learn, to build community, and - maybe most importantly - to grow up. While housed at the Deer Center, young men will have access to life skills training, mental health care, financial education, help finding a job, and a community of peers and mentors who support them. As they get older and move through the program, their financial and communal responsibilities will increase in preparation for a smooth transition out of the program and into a thriving future.

Advocates like Cathryn and Dr. Coker, and programs like the Deer Center that use developmental science to imagine innovative ways to support young adults in crisis, aren’t just hopeful - they’re practical solutions with tangible results.?

“Those young people that I have worked with,” Cathryn smiles, “they’re what gives me hope. The kid who brought a gun to school who now has his Masters in Social Work from the University of Chicago. The kids who were unjustly sentenced for life as juveniles in the 80s and 90s are having their sentences revised and living freely as parents, activists, laborers, and educators. They prove again and again that young people deserve second chances.?

If you give these kids a second chance, they’ll take it. They’ll go on to give back, to build beautiful lives.?

They’re the ones working hardest to create a more just and equitable system that sees youth for who they can be, not just what they’ve done.”