When teenagers break the law, parents are sometimes surprised and confused. Something like this has never happened before. Their teenager never gave any indication of wanting to break the law or being involved in these types of activities. It all feels very unnatural, and some parents even struggle to believe that their child would have committed a crime at all.
The reason for this could be that the child was manipulated through peer pressure. Teenagers have an inherent desire to fit in with their social groups and to be accepted by their peers. This means that they are especially susceptible when any type of pressure is applied by the group. They may either want to increase their standing in the group or avoid being ridiculed for their decisions.
For example, a group of teens may be in a store together when one person dares that teen to shoplift. The teen does not want the item that they are shoplifting, they don’t need it, they do have the money to buy it, and so there is no real reason for them to steal the item. But they still do it because they want the rest of the group to think positively of them, and they are afraid of being marginalized if they refuse the dare.
What options are there?
For parents, this can be very frustrating because they understand how big of an impact legal charges can have on a teen’s future. They don’t want that future to be defined by one poor decision at a young age when their teen was clearly being influenced by others to act outside of their normal character.
As such, it’s quite important for both teens and their parents to carefully look into all of the legal defense options at their disposal.
