For years and years, we’ve heard “youth crime goes up in the summer.” It’s just one of those things that is easy to believe because it just makes sense.

Teens not in school are more likely to get in trouble, correct?

Well, the trouble is, statistics show that’s not true. As it turns out, more trouble happens when all the teens are congregated together during the school year than when they’re split up and disbursed around the various corners of the county.

Overall, youth crime appears to be down over the past decade or so, yet still, society seems convinced that teens are getting into more trouble now.

Clearly some teens are troubled to the point of lashing out and as Adams County Youth Court Judge John Hudson said, it’s often a factor of those youth simply feeling disconnected from our society.

When those teens — for various reasons — look around and think, “I’ll never have a good-paying job and a house and a nice car, etc.” that’s when they figuratively throw up their hands and simply stop caring.

It’s up to us — all of the adults in the society — to figure out a way to help those teens see that they do matter and they can belong, even if their own mom and dad may have told them differently.

Youth crime is a problem, but its root is often in youth simply not being loved enough and reared by good, principle-based parents.