The youth of today have grown up through the age of lawsuits, child rights, and a better knowledge of the law than we ever did. My own son was a walking book of "this is all they can do to me" information. The sad thing is that he was right in every instance. He got caught shoplifting a CD (Muddy Waters, of all things. And, he was "sticking it to the recording industry"), and when going through the process, he calmly told us that he would only get a slap on the wrist and a fine. We got to court, and that's exactly what happened.
What opened his eyes was when a friend of his got caught underage drinking. The friend went up before a controversial hanging judge in Mason, OH. What should have been a fine/probation deal turned sour quickly when the judge asked the friend where he got the beer. My son's friend responded (typical self-assured tone), "I'm not at liberty to say", and the judge responded "Then you can spend 6 months in the county jail thinking about that". The gavel went down, and the deed was done. My son came home freaked. We told him, "Welcome to the real world". He's been a lot less cocky since then, and when we moved, leaving him with the apartment so he could go to school there, we simply told him one thing - there's no-one here to bail you out of jail if you get in trouble.
