Adolescent risk-taking and impulsive behaviour — long dismissed as poor judgment — are better understood as the brain functioning exactly as it was shaped to function, according to research in evolutionary criminology. The teenage brain's reward system peaks in mid-adolescence, making social rewards and perceived slights feel intensely significant, while the prefrontal cortex (the region governing impulse control) does not fully mature until a person's mid-twenties. A teenager who retaliates to a public insult, for example, is not failing to weigh consequences — they are weighing the social cost of backing down, which at that age can be heavier than the risk of punishment. Researchers argue this developmental window is also one of the greatest opportunities to shape behaviour positively: environments that offer fair outcomes, peer mediation, and face-saving ways to de-escalate conflict allow young people's still-developing judgment to catch up with their heightened impulses.