Discussion Board Topic: Chronic Juvenile Offenders

James Holmes committed one of the worst mass shootings in history. The accused movie theatre shooter killed 12 people and injured 50 when he opened fire in a movie theatre on July 20, 2012 during the premier of the Dark Knight Rises. According to his lawyer, mental illness was the reason why Holmes opened fire. Prosecutors argued that mental illness should not be used to protect a mass murderer from punishment.
Holmes was sentences to 12 life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.

you will assume the role of the Defense Lawyer. Your job is to argue that your client should not receive the death penalty and that his mental illness should be taken into consideration for a more lenient sentence. Your job is to humanize your client and to bring up issues of family, mental health, and more appropriate options.

WRITE OWN TOUGHTS ON THIS 200 words.

and also please respond to this students post- 50 words each respond

1)Nickolas/ I think the opposite but I am forced to argue against myself here. Biological factors cannot be an explanation for disruptive or criminal behavior because of the contemporary trait theory, which states that it is not a single biological or psychological attribute that can explain criminality, and that each offender is to considered physically and mentally unique, therefore there must be different explanations for criminal or disruptive behavior. I think that if the foods we ate really contributed to disruptive or criminal behavior, than the majority of the children that eat poor high sugar/fat diets would be disruptive and potential criminals. This just isn’t true, and on the opposite end of the spectrum a perfect diet does not guarantee one will never be disruptive or have a criminal disposition.

2) jorge/ Biological factors can not be a explanation for criminal behaviors. Correlation does not equal causation. Just because certain factors as sugar imbalance is a correlated to criminal behavior, it does mean its the cause for it. Criminals are criminals because they choose to be. They can only blame themselves, not find a excuse for their behavior. There is no need to remove sugar from schools, or change the diets at school for the reason of criminal behavior. If we remove certain foods, it shall be for health reasons.