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I. INTRODUCTION ..........552
II. CASE LAW: ANALYZING CURRENT CATEGORICAL BARS AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ..........555
A. Evolution of Youth Status: Age Is More Than Just a Number ..........559
B. Evolving Treatment of a Defendant 's Intellectual Disability ..........563
C. How Courts View Childhood Trauma in the Context of Capital Punishment ..........565
III. UNDERSTANDING THE PERNICIOUS HARM OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ..........567
A. Infancy: A Pivotal Time of Development ..........570
B. Childhood and Beyond: Building on the Foundation Laid During Infancy ..........572
A. Establishing a Framework for an Environmental Defense ..........576
B. Critiques of an Environmental Defense ..........579
IV. AN ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE: DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK TO ADDRESS THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL TRAUMA ON CRIMINAL CULPABILITY ..........575
1. The Defendant's "Personal Choice" Creates Culpability ..........579
2. Inability to Develop a Workable Objective Standard ..........580
C. Creating a Standard Using Adverse Childhood Experiences ..........581
V. CONCLUSION: THE LIFE OF SEAN ..........584
I. INTRODUCTION
What makes a person who they are? Does one's nature (i.e., genes) or one's environment determine who that person will become? In reality, both one's nature and environment play vital roles in an individual's personal development.1 Each factor plays off the other, contributing to an individual's personal development.2 Arguably, the most pivotal time for personal development is childhood because key neurological functions and adaptive social behaviors begin to develop.3 Accordingly, the environmental factors that surround an individual during childhood can either benefit or inhibit an individual's personal development.4
One environmental factor that consistently plays a vital, although pernicious, role in an individual's development is childhood trauma.5 Research suggests that childhood trauma has a deleterious effect on personal development, and the effects of these traumas can endure beyond childhood, altering an individual's adult actions.6 Because the harms stemming from childhood trauma can last a lifetime, recognition of these traumatic experiences becomes essential not only for rehabilitative purposes but also for the valuable insight these traumatic experiences can provide in understanding an individual's future actions. Legally, this insight can have significant ramifications in determining an individual's criminal culpability.
Criminal culpability directs the American justice system to punish only those who have broken the law with the requisite intent. Culpability not only answers the pivotal question of whether a crime has actually been committed but also determines what punishment the...