The thoroughly modern notion that 14-17 year olds are children and should essentially get out of jail free has caused no end of social problems. A post adolescent is not a child. Pretending they are empowers them to act like it, and grown bodies acting like children cause no end of mayhem. They learn for 4 or 5 years that mayhem has no consequences, until they turn 18 and are sent off to prison within months.
I hate people who victimize children, this was no child.
Over at alt.true-crime is an article about a 12 year old that stabbed her classmate in the heart with a sharpened metal comb. She was arrested and told she might face an attempted murder charge. The girl is quoted as saying, "I'm not scared; it's my mom that'll be in trouble, not me."