New To Juvenile Crime? That is Nothing New

Kids get themselves into trouble. This is nothing new. When humans first mastered fire, you can be sure that, shortly thereafter, some maladjusted youth accidentally burned down his family’s cave (Don’t ask me how it’s possible to burn down a cave – I’m not an archaeologist).

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this is, and will always be: teenagers are at the mercy of raging hormones, they crave independence, and they live to question and push the limits of authority. Oh, and there’s this:

“Adolescents, with their new powers of abstract reasoning, often spend time constructing grand religious, ethical, and philosophical theories. Because adolescents have limited life experience, these theories are often unsophisticated and naive. In fact, adolescents are prone to formal operational egocentrism, or a rigid insistence that the world can become a better place through implementation of their idealistic schemes.”

So, “formal operational egocentrism” is what that’s called. I thought it was just called “being a teenager”.

That tidy little passage was written around 100 years ago. That’s right; the teenage angst we all went through (“I’m a beautiful and unique snowflake!” “Nobody understands me!”) is meaningless and predictable, and was perfectly deconstructed a century ago. Of course, if you’re an angst-ridden teenager reading this, don’t worry. I’m sure you’re the one who truly has it all figured out. Yeah, I’m positive. Keep on keepin’ on, buddy.

When this teenage angst turns into criminal behavior, luckily there are lawyers who specialize in defending juveniles. It’s a good thing, too, because according to LegalMatch statistics, minors are capable of just about every terrible act that adults are capable of.

What’s different is many of these kids come to the criminal justice system without a prior rap sheet.  In fact, around half of all juvenile defendants reported no prior arrests when submitting their case to LegalMatch. While some of them might have been less than truthful on their reports, this isn’t terribly likely, as most people know that it is never, under any circumstances, a good idea to lie to your lawyer.

This might mean that many of these criminal acts, especially the more “minor” ones, such as shoplifting and marijuana possession, may simply be the result of “youthful indiscretions” (remember that term when you’re interviewing for a job/running for office, kids!), and don’t heavily reflect the individual’s character.

Of course, it’s probably a bit more difficult to explain away in a similar fashion things like armed robbery and assault on a police officer…