I have to disagree with you on that one. A lot of it just didn't go on period because perps feared retribution. Kids feared other kids parents or rather they respected other kids parents. We knew if we got in trouble the news of it would likely beat us home.
Here is the telling part though. I grew up close to Knoxville, TN.I lived theres as a kid from 7-10 I could pretty well feel safe even five or six streets over. We moved to a rural area 20 miles away when I was 10. At age 12 I still could go to downtown in the afternoon catching a ride in as my dad was going to work. I'd catch a couple of movies and walk to his place of work about 8:00pm usually dark. That was through downtown even passing a couple of bars. It was reasonably safe. By the time I was 16 it wasn't safe.
People working where my dad did began carrying. Vehicles were getting broken into and/or stolen. Ten years before this was not happening. Remember the old 55 Chevys? You could start it and drive it without the key you could a 61 also IIRC but if necessary you could lock the ignition with the key. Windows were left rolled down, kids left in cars, and nobody messed with it.
In the outlying neighborhoods from downtown house doors once only locked when people went off on vacation were being lock most of the time. Burglaries increased even in the rural areas. So what happened? Several things. One was fathers left mothers to raise kids alone usually in public housing. The kids lacked guidance and discipline. The mothers had to work to raise the kids. Drugs became more prevalent and the nation began a rapid moral decline. Add to that persons who once for the good of society some bordering criminally insane were suddenly put out on the streets instead of being locked up. Thus street people began. Teachings of Dr Spock became popular also. Many things happened and the sum total brought us too a far more dangerous place.
True some things did go on but not too the increased level we see today. Criminals have lost their fear of retribution or punishment. I sure don't for example remember hearing such horrid things as this Special judge grants new trials for torture-slaying defendants, cites Baumgartner's conduct nor do my parents remeber such violence.
The neighborhood in that article where the victims were car jacked and kidnapped once was among the safest. It was a blue collar middle class neighborhood when I was a kid. When I took a job in that neighborhood in the late 1980's it was getting real bad. I was a store clerk and I carried every night. The neighborhood where they were taken to be tortured and killed? That was about 3 miles away from there on the back streets. I would not go there in daytime without carrying.
Our nation is in serious decline and Frist is worried about a kids weight.