Not making excuses. Those who are guilty need to be punished. There acts are not justified by poor upbringing. But we are not going to solve this problem if we do not address how we got here. It is by not identifying and correcting the causes of this behavior that we are making excuses.
We can wring our hands trying to glean some historical events that might have been some sort of cause for that, but I'm long past giving a crap.
You get a group of friends, young white son, you find the guys who were swinging on you, and you lay the lumber to them. If necessary, one at a time. The ONLY thing thugs respect is power. You either take it back, or forever you will be one of the bullied.