Becoming an adult is portrayed as a biological and physical component of advancing through human life. Many developmentalists and psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud and Lawrence Kohlberg, analyzed humans and their behaviors to discover the maturation of beings, and to what extent human nature matures. Both psychologists included an age frame in their synopsis on development, and stated that a person is “considered” a full-grown adult in the early-mid-twenties. Biologically speaking, adulthood is reached when a person is fully developed and sexually mature. According to the legal community though, adulthood is a whole other story. 

    In the US, a person is considered a legal adult at 18. Once someone is of age, they are held responsible for their own actions in a court of law and are subject to prosecution to the highest extent of the law. Also, in the United States, when a male turns 18, he is eligible to be selected for the draft in the military. 18-year-olds can sign contracts and sign legal documents for college loans. Becoming an adult is presented with many complications though, especially when a minor commits a crime. A case study of a 14-year-old boy being tried as an adult for throwing a rock at a police officer during a political rally is a keen example of why being considered an adult is so controversial. Other states have tried people under 18 as adults as well.

   However, at 18 anyone is able to enlist in the army and buy a gun, but laws prohibit an 18-year-old from purchasing alcohol, tobacco, and most rental car companies will not rent to 18-year-olds. Few argue that becoming an adult is compromised by the immature decisions presented by adolescents when dealing with everyday occurrences. On the contrary, in other countries, such as Scotland, one can be considered a legal adult at age 16. Becoming an adult includes a whole lot more that’s overlooked. Adulthood consists of freedoms such as choosing what to do in life, what food to eat, what job to have, what choices to make; necessary a majority of the time to withstand financial substantiality. All these things that people take on and yet, in the legal world, much bias is set in place, setting apart adulthood from adolescence.