Abstract: This essay includes notes from my psychology class and conversations I had amongst my peers to help me understand that there’s more to writing than what we think we know. Approaching this paper, I was prepared to be confused and surprised about the articles I was about to read to gain access to understanding what goes on in childhood crime. I took notes while watching the show over and over again to analyze Jamie’s character. I edited this essay many times before submitting it, but if I had more time, I would just tweak my citations and use more paraphrasing instead of direct quotes. 

Murder, Delinquency, Crime, and the Psychological Phenomena of an Adolescent Brain

From the very first day that you are born, you are directly affected by the surroundings in which you are in. Whether that means economical, emotional, or physical; The environment we are placed into as children shape us into the people we become in the future. So, what does that generally say about our parents, the way we are raised, and everything beyond our household? Parenting styles have been the main topic of conversation in social media platforms, specifically with the newest generation, Z, and how they described to end cycles through these new parenting styles. For example, many bring up gentle parenting as a way to break generational curses and build healthier relationships within a family. It has become a psychological phenomena as we view the effects of how these parenting styles can either afford too much comfortability in a household and give up boundaries, or effectively raise responsible adolescents. 

Through adolescence and early childhood, we are affected the most by our environments, peers, and even the state of the world. We see this occur in Netflix’s new limited series, Adolescence, which explores the story of 13 year old Jamie Miller, and the crime he committed. He is convicted for murdering his classmate, Katie, who was bullying him through social media. Social media, bullying, adolescence, and murder: All words that you wouldn’t typically want to see together, but are very common nowadays. The series explores behaviors and signs that we ignore in our children that causes them to do things we would’ve never imagined. Adolescence exposes the harsh truth that our children have too much transparency of the world at a young age, negatively impacting their growth, and causing them to make irrational decisions. Among the youth, we view minorities being mainly targeted towards violence, family drug abuse, and other household disadvantages that cause potential incarceration through crimes that rise because of these exposures. 

My initial research surrounds the behavioral tendencies we miss in our children’s adolescence and how it can eventually affect them long term. I want to explore Jamie’s behaviors and compare them to real world examples, viewing research on previous murders, serial killers, all amongst younger ages. Forensic psychology is very broad but crimes committed by children and how they are evaluated, gives us a sense of what impacts one’s premature mind to commit such violent acts. Reaching a conclusion that helps us notice early signs of destructive and impulsive behaviors, alongside what we can do to avoid our children being deeply affected by their environment is a common goal. We already know that we can impact the environment of our children to help them become better people and pursue a bright future, but we do not have access to all controlled groups. In psychology, we explore the idea that we will be affected by everything around us, whether we like it or not, that’s just how our brain works. 

Diving into Jamie Miller’s brain is something director and producer, Philip Barantini, does with his one shot technique to dig into the series of Miller’s dark thoughts and emotions (Kinane). Miller is an interesting character who, at the beginning, denies the crime he was accused of, and even after seeing footage of himself committing said crime, he continued to manipulate his support system by denying these accusations. Miller’s story climaxes during episode 3 when a female psychologist visits him to evaluate his behaviors. This psychologist notices how his behavior changes through their conversation, which helps her determine that he did in fact commit this murder with no remorse towards his horrific actions. We will discuss more in depth his natural behaviors towards the psychologist, but we must explore where they originated from. Many viewers wonder and are at the edge of their seats during this episode, questioning what affected Jamie to become a murderer at the age of 13? Emotionally, Jamie was always overpowering any situation he was in. In the first episode, when he’s in the police station being questioned about Katie’s death, he consistently denies being friends with her, meeting up with her, and killing her. When the Sergeant made him watch a recorded tape of himself being positioned on top of Katie after he pushed her to the floor, he took away her power of defense, and stabbed her multiple times. Jamie Miller was destined to commit this crime and it is not necessarily his full responsibility. Accountability can be held to the environments that impacted his behaviors, attitudes, feelings, and actions.

Controlling to decrease childhood delinquency and stopping adolescent crimes is an issue society has failed to grasp and understand because adding to the problem seems like an easier fix. Time Magazine writer, Olive B. Waxman explores the Adolescence series and its take on childhood crime through, “How Netflix’s Gripping Adolescence Takes on the Dark World of Incels”, explaining central questions and points set to make the audience connected to this story. Waxman describes the parents’ role in this series and how they were generally frightened, concerned, and shocked when they discovered their child did commit the crime he was being accused of from the very beginning. The show takes us through the five stages of grief, with Jamie, and the Miller family: An intense amount of denial and grief gathered through the Miller parents since they could not come to the conclusion that this happened to their child. They consistently question where they went wrong as parents, which takes us back to having a sense of control over any situation. Can we naturally just do all we can or what extent must we reach as parents to avoid anything bad happening to our children? Philip Barantini creates this story that childhood exposure to different things, such as family violence, economical pressures, and social media, which we cannot escape can greatly impact our adolescents. Towards the end of the show, we realize that Jamie’s environment did and didn’t affect the crime he committed. Although Mr. Miller was not physically abusive towards his wife, through flashbacks, the audience views him belittling her, raising his tone, and displaying small, but impactful signs of verbal abuse that are often mistaken as a simple outrage or one-time occurrence. Jamie viewed these behaviors often, although he was a privileged kid, with access to school, nutrition, and relationship bonding, he was not a part of healthy environments. Jamie Miller was not economically or financially challenged, but we can not disregard that the quality of these resources were shameful and contributed to the way Jamie reacted towards Katie. 

Furthermore, Jamie’s parents’ relationship had a direct affect on how he perceived, behaved, and felt about women. He witnessed his father dominate his mother; even when Jamie was initially brought into police custody, his father was by his side, encouraging Mrs. Miller not to worry. Jamie’s bond with his father was deeper and stronger. Jamie precisely asked him to be his chosen guardian while being questioned, which hurt his mother. She considered why her son did this, and whether he was lying, while Mr. Miller questioned his own relationship with his son. Unfortunately, Jamie’s parental relationship and the space he grew up in invited toxic masculinity into his character. The normalization of how his own father treated his mother allowed Jamie to disrespect Katie and kill her because this child was not taught how to effectively resolve conflict or handle confrontation, which unfortunately disabled his ability to treat women in a respectful manner in the long run. Conducting arguments in front of children, normalizing yelling at each other, and treating one another in an inhumane way are practices children copy seemingly. 

Through the lenses of lead detectives Luke Bascombe and Misha Frank, when they investigate the probable causes they step into the school system Jamie was in. We walk through the halls with these characters and view a significant amount of verbal abuse from teachers, misbehaved children, and an environment that even the Miller parents are unaware their child steps into daily. In the second episode, viewers watch these kids use vulgar language towards each other, break into fights, and ignore their authority figures. We question if the system set Jamie up for failure, if all of our systems fail our children, and if our adolescents are doomed to conduct these crimes towards one another. In a setting, like school, where it’s so easy to hate rather than love, although it’s a place for education and personal development, these are the spaces where they learn the opposite of what the lesson plans entail. Responding to these actions have to come after being aware of the problems that are occurring and what’s happening within. But, the Miller’s were not aware that Jamie was surrounded by this toxic environment. Even detective Bascombe was flabbergasted and disgusted at the way these officials treat children, since his own child attended the same school Jamie did. Adam Bascombe was aware, moved accordingly and not with the crowd, which departed him for the behaviors we saw in Jamie. Adam was also bullied for his intelligence and the family he was into, but he did not murder his bully, or treated them less than. Even while being involved in the same failing school system Jamie was a part of, he did not react the way Miller did. So, our adolescents’ environments all support their personal development in both a negative or positive way. It’s not up to us to decide how our kids react to certain actions of others, but it is our responsibility to limit the possibilities of our children becoming monsters. In this case, the demons at home, school, and within Jamie’s friend group, caught up to the Miller family, and helped them develop a pathological liar, manipulator, and murderer. 

Violence being a common factor in children is the norm in today’s society. As a society we understand that we bring upon these things to our children by allowing these exposures to negatively affect their critical thinking and decision making skills. If your child is repeatedly  watching or playing violent video games including gun violence, or sexual visuals, like Grand Theft Auto, and their reachable versions, should astonishing responses be accepted as parents or guardians? Bringing us to the research conducted by Alyssa R. Talaugon and Jillian J. Turanovic: “Children Exposure to Family Violence, Residential Instability, and Parental Incarceration: Compounding Household Adversities and Adolescent Delinquency”, which examines what correlation these exposures can have on our children while breaking societal stereotypes of children who are raised in such circumstances. Being relentlessly surrounded by misconduct behavior patterns can interrupt us in ways that we adapt to those attitudes, although, the writers argue that “children may have honed more effective coping skills by having to overcome multiple familial hardships, or, with time, have become “steeled” to the impacts of compounding strains or traumatic events”, generally disconnecting adolescent crimes to obstructive presences in children’s home (Talaugon). While in some cases, this can correlate to some groups of children, minorities face a higher risk of committing crimes, living an unhealthy lifestyle, and prone to failure because of consistently “witnessing violence” which can be a “traumatic experience for children” (Turanovic). Recognizing the specific group of adolescents that commit crimes and are put through the judicial system at a young age, can lead us to the initial problems that put them there. There are risks in every household and environment that can influence a child’s life long term. 

Children can overcome the obstacles they face at home, or at school, or even personally if they are struggling with self identity and discovery. But, it is almost impossible for a 13 year old to do all the above. In Adolescence, the most important episode would be the third, where we review the conversation between Jamie and the female psychologist. There was a quick word that he was seen by both a female and male psychologist, but we only glimpse her perspective. This is extremely significant because he is placed with an authority figure who is a woman, older than him, attractive, successful, and is testing him. Miller knows he’s being tested though and he still fails. He is placed in a stable environment, a room that is playful for children his age, and she welcomes him by bringing him a sandwich. But, Jamie reacts and continues to expose tendencies that are not normal if he did not commit the crime he was being accused of. At this point, we are all evaluating him, still questioning what else might have led him to do this, and if there was any way of stopping it. Briony Ariston is the woman who is assigned the difficult case and sits with Jamie for hours trying to answer herself if this child is a monster. Ariston goes through her own emotions and finds herself stepping out of the room to hold her composure because Jamie gets dismissive, stands up and leans towards her expressing violence, and continues to manipulate her by apologizing. Ariston and Miller enter a one sided toxic relationship because he tells her “I thought you liked me, because I fancy you, but do you fancy me?”, constantly seeking approval from her. Jamie Miller was a kid that committed a crime you would expect from a grown adult, who has experienced a series of events that would lead to such actions, but he was aware. Miller was aware of the crime he committed and did not show remorse. Ariston was left in a state of shock but she realizes that this is her job, to decide and suggest to the judge, he might or might have not committed this crime.

From the very first day you are born, you are impacted by your environment. You can’t and don’t choose what family you are born into, who you go to school with, or if you’ll have a good relationship with the people you’re initially with during the first years of your life. We are all subjects of our environments and in Adolescence we see Jamie Miller respond to his surroundings in a negative way. Although, most can say Miller was set up by the system, he also failed himself. He adapted to an environment that was minor but still unhealthy at home, and was greatly impacted by his social life through relationships that started in a scholarly space. Jamie knew to use his manipulative skills to get away with murder and adjusted his toxic masculinity in spaces where women were present. This isn’t about Jamie Miller killing Katie, his classmate that rejected him because she simply did not like him romantically. It’s also not about Miller taking bullying to an extreme and stabbing his classmate. It’s definitely not about this murder at all. Parents cannot control the uncontrollable and raise perfect children in a dystopian society. We have the free will and the singular chance to teach our adolescents to be good people. That’s something the Miller’s thought they did. But, it’s not only their fault and failure to see that will eventually break them apart as a family, which happens in real life. There are a million other questions and answers about murder and children but, the psychological phenomena of an adolescent brain all starts on how their actions are sometimes just reactions to their environments. Unfortunately, we cannot control what our children see, feel, think, or react to their daily surroundings. We must hope and pray they do not end up like any other child convicted criminal, and murder their classmate. 

Work Cited 

Kinane, Ruth. “Everything to Know about One-Shot Crime Drama Adolescence.” Netflix Tudum, 21 Mar. 2025 www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/adolescence-cast-release-date-photos-news. 

Waxman, Olivia B. “Breaking down Netflix’s Crime Drama Adolescence.” Time, 13 Mar. 2025Talaugon, Alyssa R, and Jillian J Turanovic. “Children Exposure to Family Violence, Residential Instability, and Parental Incarceration: Compounding Household Adversities and Adolescent Delinquency.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, journals-sagepub-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/002242782412809