Infanteer said:
Does anyone feel an expedited system of punishment for petty youth offenders is needed?
Well I just thought I'd put my two cents in.. yeah, infact I do.
Today's youth, (and I can say this out of experience... being a youth myself,) has this idea that because they're young they can get away with anything. They think, "I'm young. My body is tough. I can smoke, do drugs, beat up some little kids at the park and get away with it."
And they usually do get away with it.
Parents don't believe that it's their little angel who's doing these terrible things, they kinda just say, "Well you know, that was wrong. Don't do it again." There's no lesson learned in that.
Teens get away with bullying classmates and stealing candy bars out of convenience stores.
That gets boring, they get a little more daring, and move onto bigger things.
Murder, rape, identity theft.
Anything for thrill.
Today's youth gets away with far too much. If the "do"'s and "don't"'s aren't set at an early age, it takes a little more than reminders to help it set in.
A good whack over the head always reminded me of where my place was.
I say, give em a week or so in the slammer. Scare the bejeebies out of them at 13 or 14, so they don't go and pull off some other crap later down the line.
More comments from the peanut gallery,
Lex