Editor's Note: This week, American Morning is examining the causes of youth-on-youth violence across the country. Yesterday, in part three of the series, "Walk in My Shoes," we walked to school with two students and witnessed the dangers they face every day. Today, we examine the teenage brain to look for an explanation for some of their behavior.
By T.J. Holmes, CNN
Mix the constant presence of violence kids on Chicago's west side face with the developing teen brain, and researchers say you've got a recipe for danger.
“The frontal lobe right here [points to image], is very late to mature. Not to about age 25,” and so teens are prone to act more impulsively, says Dr. Jay Giedd, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health.
“Whenever there's high emotion then this part of the brain is really taxed. It really has to work extra hard to sort it all out.”
That's true even for teens living in the best of circumstances, but add a constant barrage of violence to a kid's life and that risky behavior can become magnified.
“They misinterpret signs of danger. They overreact to it all the time and they have trouble calming themselves down and seeing the world the way other people see it," says Gene Griffin, assistant professor at Northwestern Medical School.
Dr. Giedd says the brain can actually get used to the violence, taking even more violence to shock it.
“If the world of the teen is violent and that people need to be aggressive in order to survive in that environment the biology will make the brain change and adapt to whatever demands there are.”
The teens we spoke with say they've seen so much violence that they've grown used to it.
“In front of the store from my house, there was a boy with his brains blew out. So really seeing dead people and stuff, it don't even scare me no more,” says student Starr.
But experts say as much as the teen brain can be transformed by excessive exposure to violence or danger, it has the ability to change also, responding to a nurturing environment.
“How is it that we have forgotten that we need to raise children and that they're children? You've got children who are all gasoline, no brakes. It's for parents and society, schools, communities to provide the brakes,” says psychologist Carl Bell.
One such program is Umoja. It partners with Chicago's Manley High School to help teens cope by surrounding them with support, teaching leadership skills, and encouraging students to see a future for themselves.
“There is not a magic thing we say to kids that makes them stop, that will make them stop killing each other. That's not how it works. We connect and we have relationships or none of this ever changes,” says Lila Leff, the founder of Umoja.
When the program started 12 years ago, 10% of the students went onto college. Today, that number has grown to 60%.