There is a professional touch to the criminal misdemeanours of teenagers and tales of blood and gore are becoming more graphic.

If the teenagers manage to get away with their misdeeds, they become heroes in their social circle. On the other hand, if they are caught, tried and imprisoned, they are socially ostracised. Either way, there is very little guilt and remorse and certainly no intention of those involved of "turning over a new leaf".

When youngsters manage to break the rules without getting caught or get away with a planned robbery, they are further emboldened to pursue the path of more dangerous crimes. That is when, in moments of desperation, they resort to brutalities which may otherwise have been unnecessary.

Like, for instance, the case of the Mumbai schoolboy who used a screwdriver to stab to death his 76-year-old grandfather and 15-year-old cousin sister. Simply because they both refused to give him the Rs 100 which he had demanded. Once the heinous crime was committed, the teenager did a thorough job of ‘covering up’. He scattered valuables around the flat, making it appear as a robbery. He dumped his blood-spattered clothes in the washing machine and slipped back to school, from where he had come during the recess period, creating an alarm only when he returned from school. All the while, he pretended that he was shocked and ignorant. The police finally zeroed in on him because of his suspicious behaviour. He confessed to his crime under pressure and repeated questioning.

Ranjana Chaudhary was a good mother. She wanted the best for her 17-year-old son. She wanted him to make it to the IIT. It pained her to see him while away his time with a group of wastrels who loved hanging around the city’s central shopping plaza. It was her duty to ensure that he cleared his exam, even if she had to put embargoes on his routine, restrict his phone calls, minimise his outdoor philandering and put him through a gruelling schedule of tuitions. The day she took a broom to beat him and impress upon him that what she was doing was for his own good, she didn’t in her worst nightmare realise that he would unleash all his pent-up anger and frustration on her. In that one wild moment ,he grabbed what was lying closest to him, a hammer in this case, to club her with all the force he could muster. The violent act was a reflex action to stop the person who at that moment was not his mother, but his arch-enemy, an adversary all out to destroy his world, his rating in the popularity chart amongst his peers. He had to stop her from raving and ranting the one single mantra which had possessed her for the last few years. So what if he couldn’t make it to the IIT? There was his father’s leather business to fall back upon. Ranjana died on the spot and her son is today in judicial custody.

Teenage angst, which thrives on the "no-one-understands-me syndrome", needs an aggressor — in this case the mother — on whom to vent out the pent-up anger. Much like the unassuming introvert student in Delhi’s Air Force Bal Bharti School who created a pornographic website featuring his unsuspecting classmates whom he perceived to be his opponents.

Violence does not have to be of the physical kind and for proof it does not have to show maimed bodies and visible scars. An aggressive boyfriend who treats his girlfriend like an errand boy or who clamps an intimidating list of dos and don’ts on her, claiming her as his exclusive property, is also being abusive. A group of young boisterous boys forcing a new entrant to smoke or get into a promiscuous relationship all in the name of social acceptance demonstrates violent behaviour. Ragging, teasing, intimidating, can be some harmless fun to began with but can lead to seriously damaging, lifelong consequences.

According to Bharti Kapoor, a counsellor associated with some of Delhi’s best public schools: "It is generally, the children who are used to having high levels of excitement and fun in their lives who end up becoming major threats to society. Sanjeev Nanda (BMW case), Manu Sharma (Jessica Lal), Yadav (Nitish Katara) — from being aggressive, angry, spoilt rich boys, they have all grown into violent, threatening, dysfunctional human beings incapable of having normal personal, professional or social lives."

Bharti feels that lifestyles and attitudes have undergone a sea change. A decade ago, parents would proudly announce that their would-be son-in-law was a teetotaller. Today they even reconcile to their teenaged children drinking beer and having an occasional cigarette. As far as youngsters are concerned Rave and Ecstasy parties (a drug which allows you to dance through the night) are a regular feature with drinks flowing freely. To fund this lifestyle, however, loads of money is required. Giving college students huge sums of pocket money, brand new luxury cars, mobile phones and the permission to dance the nights away at discos has not just made teenage crime easy but also put young children at enormous risk. The recent death of writer Manju Kapoor’s (author of Difficult Daughters) young daughter in Delhi was a case in point. Returning in the early hours of the morning from one of the hotel’s discotheques with another youngster at the wheel, it was easy to drive at a speed which was over 120 kmph. The rash driving killed not just her and her friend but also two unsuspecting students who were walking home after a late night film. They were new to the city, and had hired a small apartment to stay while they took tuitions for IIT. Besides accidents of this nature, AIDS, teen pregnancies, substance abuse and addiction rarely allow you to learn from your mistakes, they take away lives with a brutal finality, permanently benumbing those who are left behind.

A city-based gynaecologist recently had a tough time making a Class XII student realise the trauma she was putting her body through by coming to her for repeated MTPs. The girl was completely under the influence of her boyfriend who refused to use protection. The doctor says, "I tried not to lecture the girl, who obviously knew what she was doing but tried to tell her to show some sexual responsibility. It was her body after all which was getting affected and she had her entire life ahead of her. But I know, in spite of my non- accusing tone, she was not really listening."

A few years ago the Delhi police had solved the case of "missing Marutis and car stereos". It was found that young boys had been stealing music systems from cars in their own localities. One of the boys who was caught red-handed confessed, "Stealing car stereos is easy. They are easy to dismantle and can fetch instant returns. Also, if you do get caught, you are often let off with only a thrashing." Such thefts are usually committed to purchase drugs, expensive cigarettes, alcohol and foot hotel bills.

In Chandigarh a few years ago, a gang of intelligent burglars armed with sophisticated devices committed a number of thefts. Their modus operandi was to identify corner plots and watch the movements of the inmates. They targeted those homes whose families had gone on vacation or were out of station for some other reason. They would break into the house and ransack the almirahs, safes and storage units. Only those items which were of use to them would be stolen. These included CDs and CD players, expensive clothes, branded shirts, trousers, South Indian silk sarees, Pashmina shawls, imported watches, credit cards, crystal pieces, glasses, silver ware, electronic items, computers, footwear, hand bags and other expensive items. They would take away gold, silver and diamond jewellery and leave behind pearls, garnets and other semi-precious ornaments. The fact that they knew the worth of the items they were stealing was a revelation. Also when the owners discovered the extent of damage, they found that the trendy thieves had made use of their credit cards in those limited first hours of undetected freedom, to eat in Delhi’s choicest restaurants, shop in the most exclusive shoe stores, boutiques and department stores. With the help of credit card companies, which gave details of what all had been bought, from where and for how much, it was established that the thieves were young men who were educated and came from fine families.

The trend that is alarming psychiatrists today is that the generation of "Angry Young Men of the 70s" (as exemplified by Amitabh Bachchan) has been replaced by a generation of Angry Young Children. Teens today are like a bunch of miniature adults. They know their rights and want all the liberties that were till recently associated with the older set. They want more, be it pocket money, motor cycles and cars, credit cards, mobiles, freedom or relaxation of curfew hours. The attitude seems to be, "it's my life, I know best and nothing should be allowed to interfere with my way of living". This pseudo-maturity is further buttressed by the negative role models in the media. And, sadly, the role models are kids who can challenge authority.

The parent-child stand-off results only when there is a gap between the aspirations of both. Bridging this divide can be possible only if channels of communication remain open. A recent survey conducted by ‘Expressions’, a school-based project being run by VIMHANS, showed that 80 per cent of the schoolchildren questioned felt that communication between them and their parents was missing. Indeed, communication between Ranjana and her son could have saved their relationship from ending in such a brutal manner. Responsible parenting on the part of the Nandas, Sharmas, Yadavs and Singhs could have averted the deaths of so many young lives. Perhaps Ranjana should have shown her son options, instead of harping on his failures. Maybe, he could have shared with her his own dreams and aspirations without getting choked by what she felt was right for him.

Parents have to ask themselves as to why they have ceased to be the perfect role models. Why are they unsure of what to teach to their children? They are not clear of how strict or liberal they should be. Why have family values been substituted with values beamed from the television? Why do working parents leave their children first in the care of crèches and ayahs and later in the company of friends? Why have adults not been able to inculcate in the younger generation respect for the polity, administration and education system? Studies reveal that violent children have usually grown in a violent atmosphere. They have either witnessed too much of it within the house, or have been subjected to violent behaviour. An alcoholic or heavy drinker usually has a parent who drank beyond acceptable limits. A child who has seen an abusive relationship between his parents is unlikely to be gentle, caring and normal with his own girlfriend or wife. Seeing the father fight with his brothers over property and money is going to leave a lasting impression on the child’s mind. If the parent/s treat the house like a sarai or a resthouse, you cannot expect the child to have any particular affinity or intimate bonding with those around him.

According to Kathleen Heide in her book, Young Killers (1999), "...many young killers growing up in the 1990s have little or nothing left to lose. These are the kids who are angry, frequently in pain, and too often unattached to other human beings due to experiences in their home and neighborhood environments." The Oscar-winning movie American Beauty brought out the angst of the American teenager. A young beautiful girl using her body to titillate her friend’s father, giving him the impression that she is sexually experienced, when she was actually a virgin... the daughter hating her father for lusting after her friend, and going so far as hiring her drug-selling boyfriend to kill him... the boyfriend being perverse enough to film his girlfriend without her knowledge reflect a sick, deranged and dysfunctional society. These images, howsoever unpleasant, actually stem from lack of love, understanding, compassion and empathy. Not all children are born criminals, out to hurt the very people who love them. The Indian child may still not have the courage and the wherewithal to ape his American counterpart who crashed a plane into a New York skyscraper for a whimsical reason. He may not be a regular visitor to the psychiatrist’s couch and he may not be spending a sizeable part of his young life going in and out of juvenile cells. It is time parents, teachers, counsellors and adolescent cells set up an appropriate carebank backed with the right physical infrastructure to deal with teen angst and to channell their youth, their energies and their hope into pursuits which can make them the pride of their nation.