The youth justice system often fails to provide positive role models and instead exposes young individuals to further violence and manipulation.

“they take advantage of the young men because we really just need like a fatherly role model and they see that in us and they'll be like you guys fight here Friday night”

Lex Bialowarczuk attributes her past criminal behaviors and delinquency to being young and immature.

“I was young, I was dumb.”

Rebellion can stem from the intense pressure to live up to the success of one's parents.

“when your parents are are Ultra successful especially if you have two parents like that are like that then there's a ton of pressure on you to be successful so you either you either try and emulate them and bust your ass in school and have a plan and try and you know following their footsteps or you”

Ellis Jones believes that many youth in juvenile detention centers are not true sociopaths but are often just mislabeled, bored, or suffering from the effects of systemic failure.

“and some of them were serious felons but none of them were sociopaths or you know I me maybe there's some sociopaths but you can't those are hard to F but nobody anybody um they I know some of them probably have now”

The juvenile detention system functions as an incubator for future criminality rather than as a rehabilitative environment.

“the local juvenile hall in my region was the second worst one in the state of California next to Los Angeles certain parts of LA's juvenile hall system and we're talking who's who of future California criminals many of whom are still in California state prisons are federal prisons today”

Chris Ramsay believes in strictly restricting her son's freedom to prevent him from engaging in delinquent behavior.

“he has not had any freedom at all I mean he literally goes to work and home probably three months because he makes bad choices and we're just don't we don't want that for our kids so he literally has no life”

Jacob Diaz claims his early engagement in criminal behavior was motivated by the basic necessity to provide for his mother and survive poverty.

“my thing was I'm gonna help my mom anyway possible so I would find myself going in the gas stations and stealing packs of gums the uh dollar packs right I would I would take the whole rack out and go to school and sell them for a dollar”