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And I think that is the attitude that many use to justify such activities. I'm certain these little assholes knew what they were doing was wrong. This "Aw they are only kids" excuse is used too often
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I was not trying to make excuses for these kids and I don't beleive in assigning cliches to people "boys will be boys". What they were doing was wrong and a little disturbed, but we can't evaluate them like we would full adults. With teens their brains are not fully developed yet, mainly their frontal lobes which deals with inhibition and social restraint(often called the social lobe). Damage or underdevelopment of the frontal lobe is often assiociated with delinquency. Also, I knew vandalism was wrong and I did it anyway, did that make me a bad person? should I have permanent scars or disabilities to show for that? I'm not suggesting this is an excuse for this kid or that we should let him off the hook for it, I'm just saying that you can't ignore the facts. You can't ignore that he is a kid and some kids go through stages like this. That doesn't make it right, but wishing permanent harm on this kid isn't right either.