Age of Responsibility - 21

The “age of responsibility”, 21, was chosen by an unintelligent group of men because 20-year olds still aren’t fully developed at close enough rates to have a universal “Age of Responsibility”.

No two people are exactly the same, so people develop at different rates. “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 would be extremely difficult to make a solid age of responsibility since everyone is different.

Any age decided upon would be unfair for some people and perfectly fine for others. There is also the fact that there is no upper limit to the age of responsibility. There are many old people who’s not in their right mind set and yet they are considered responsible, some of them can’t remember what was just said five minutes ago and some can’t even pay attention for ten seconds and yet they’re considered responsible.

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These people are equally if not more dangerous than someone under the age of responsibility because they are not always capable of making sound judgements and there is a strong possibility of them being under the influence of some form of medication and/or alcohol. It is a well-known fact that women generally mature faster than men physically, emotionally and mentally. Does this mean that women should have a lower age of responsibility than men? No because this fact is a general statement based on the analysis of a few individuals and couldn’t possibly represent everyone.

Some women mature slowly, and some don’t mature at all, while some men mature quickly, while others mature at a normal rate. Due to the individuality of people and the many factors that affect growth and maturity there is no way to make a solid, fair age of responsibility.

The average twenty-one year old isn’t fully done growing and maturing. Research shows that the average twenty-one year old’s brain isn’t even fully developed yet. “Texas State Representative Jerry Madden says he’s sympathetic to the argument that ‘the brain isn’t fully developed until 25, and that’s when people should be allowed to do certain things.”’ Doctors also say that puberty isn’t usually finished until twenty-five. 21 year olds are also prone to make bad choices and still have a childish lifestyle.

I have an older sister that is 25; she just sits around my mom’s house doing absolutely nothing, she just comes home to eat then goes out to party, drink, and smoke. This is isn’t that big of a deal really considering all the households worldwide that smoke and drink. The prefrontal cortex of the brain, which allows to make important executive decisions, has yet to completely develop in most people under twenty-five, ergo they are incapable of making completely logical choices, though they may seem logical at the time. The average twenty-one year old is in capable of making intelligent executive decisions, so it is completely illogical to have the age of responsibility at twenty-one years old.

Twenty-one year olds generally haven’t earned the full respect of society that comes with age. A large majority of rental car companies will not rent to people under 25, or if they do then they charge them with an extra fee. The choice to not rent to people under 25 doesn’t go without reason, according to the Association for Safe International Road Travel, “Nearly 8,000 people are killed in crashes involving drivers ages 16-20”. Their age group is usually still learning to drive and so they make mistakes that can get themselves or others injured.