[Quarrelsome]

Ummmm... my brother was a terrorist when he was 17. He used to blow up stuff on the posh estate and severely vandalise properties striking legitimate fear into the hearts of those that owned them (people moved their kids away etc).

I myself was charged for criminal damage, firearms and threatening behaviour when I was 15 years old.

When you have difficulties in both school and personal life you end up doing crazy things at these ages because you are so divorced from reality. You don't know responsibility because you don't have any you don't even understand how money _really_ works so you don't appreciate the value of other people's things. All you care about is your own pain and try to find an outlet for it. You're also a bit self-centred so you never appreciate the things others or your parents really do for you.

I actually think its relatively common for people around this age to do really scary things such as this. I personally believe its a product of our present system that treats teenagers effectively as second class citizens. Without choice and any control in their life the "worst cases" end up doing really strange stuff.

[MartinCron]

If you haven't yet, I would like to encourage you to share more of your story. You seem to have both a fascinating history and solid self-awareness.

[Quarrelsome]

It's really not that special. It possibly sounds much worse on paper than it actually was. I pointed a replica gun at someone and my brother repeatedly vandalized a neighborhood over the course of a few weeks. With hindsight its the same as this kid, his crime was "just" sending abusive mail. It's only when you look at this from the perspective of those that suffered because of the actions that it feels so terrible.

We were just spoiled middle-class kids, my brother a militent marxist and myself just angry at being shut down due to my age all of the time. Compound that with the social cruelty of other children in school and home problems (relatively minor #firstworldproblems) and you get what I think is a relatively standard outcome. It might be alien to those that didn't have any difficulties in their childhood but I'd suggest its fairly common for kids to go off the rails like this.

The really interesting stories are probably from those that live in care. I used to hang around with some really troubled kids that came from proper, really difficult backgrounds (i.e. not just #firstworldproblems). Less of those people surface into what I imagine we'd call "proper society" as a lot of them understandably never lose their victim complex, constantly feel persecuted and continue to lash out throughout their entire lives. However a lot of them do patch over their past problems and become excellent contributors to society.

From my perspective it's amazing the difference in mindset that can happen to people as they grow out of their teens and into their twenties. To me it was like a completely different world and one that I was really good at and suited me much better. This is why I bitch a little about the school system and how we treat our children I personally think there is a severe disconnect between the two "worlds". That's what I really wanted to address to the parent of my comment. I think that calling someone a sociopath because of something they did in their teens suggests a lack of understanding in troubled childhoods.