The issue is that the government doesn't see teenagers as (although not fully) capable young adults.
And this issue extends further beyond teenagers and to young adults in college.
I quote from my dad, "Some of the things that people in college do that would get any regular person in jail, only get them in a cop ride back to their dorm with a little scolding."
Teenagers are not morons. We know what is right and what is wrong. We may not be as fully capable as adults, but we are capable enough to think, "Hey, I'm sure its wrong to just beat the living **** out of this guy for no reason." Yet the government and society as a whole has seen us as little kids who simply need a little scolding and everything is fine. In reality it isn't, and some teenagers need to be locked up or even executed.
Hell, in Shelton Connecticut one kid recently died because he asked a girl out. Another teenager (who is believed to have been jealous at the time) reacted to him asking the girl out by shooting him in the head, point blank, from the back.
You think that kid knew it was wrong to do that? You bet your ass he knew it was wrong.
Anyways, my crazy random tangents aside, society has this nasty habit of treating younger people like 9 year olds. It shouldn't be that way, the police need to crack down on teenagers and young adults extremely hard and stop acting like they're just little kids.
I don't know about these little pieces of ****, but when I turned 10, my father expected a lot more from me, and if I ever did something as moronic as this, he would disown me in a heartbeat.