Headlines in the past month have focused on youth alleged to have committed heinous acts; but of course the real question most are asking, is, where are the parents?
This week the idea of a children's curfew was aired. But that would assume kids are safe in their homes.
Yet for many of these kids inclined to mete out violence to others, this just isn't true.
One Flaxmere commentator this week claimed these children are often safer on the streets than in their living rooms.
It'd be hard to stumble across a more sobering piece of social commentary than that.
Is it time to introduce more strident parental accountability laws? Maybe it's an option.
We'd do well to consider that most of us have been fortunate enough to escape the friendly fire of family violence; we forget that today's negligent parents were yesterday's neglected kids.
Those who boast a comfortable childhood are eminently comfortable passing judgment on those who missed an Edenic start.
Before hitting the mattress every night I religiously check on my sleeping children - but I was shown that by my parents.
Marcus Aurelius was right to a degree - the faults of delinquent kids destined for Flaxmere's Colosseum are, with rare exception, the failings of their parents, and often their parents before them.
It's the basis of the biblical (Exodus) reference to the Sins of the Father - where the iniquities of one generation pass to another.
Flaxmere's blame is historic - but its consequence is now.
