You’ve got to wonder what is going on with a lot of 10-18 year olds, when they commit these violent crimes. They definitely have to be held responsible, but at the same time, people have to “drill-down” into what’s causing a certain number of these kids to do this — when the vast majority of the others (of their same age and circumstances) don’t do anything like this. It’s just “those few” — so why just those very few?
By that I mean if someone were to say it’s a whole slew of things (in society) that affect kids in general — then why aren’t all the kids doing these things? No ... there’s something uniquely and peculiarly different about just those few.
Suppose biology rules behavior a lot more than we care to admit. In a more unrestricted state of nature, groups rapidly cull this type of behavior constantly, keeping it rare and unknown to the species.
Abandon that process, begin to eliminate the selective effects which eliminated that antisocial nature anytime it arose, and it is only common sense all sorts of unusual behaviors will begin to rear their ugly heads.
I’d bet, go back through this kid’s family tree, and you’ll find relatives who would have quietly disappeared centuries ago, and nobody from their group/town/family would have cared to punish the disappearers, and they probably would have patted them on the back had the disappearing come to light. Of course in that scheme, this kid would never have been born, because these genes would have been removed before they became a real problem.
The most amazing thing is how lack of what we call civiization evolved man by force into a kindly and civilized creature, while the too tight embrace of civility devolves man right back into a cruel beast.
Not sure there is any answer to the issue there. Just an observation.