One reason teenagers and adolescents shouldn’t be tried as adults is explained in a study by a professor at the University Of Massachusetts. His study found that one- third of children aged eleven to thirteen and about twenty percent of adolescents aged fourteen to fifteen years old had awareness and reasoning levels comparable to those of mentally ill adults. Which means they will struggle to understand the extent of long term life in prison. Another reason that adolescents should not be tried as adults for heinous crimes