The same scenario plays itself out thousands of times across the country each week, as hundreds of news outlets report on gang shootings, lootings, robberies, and rapes, alleging that “teens” are the perpetrators. The legacy news media either can’t or won’t come up with a more accurate term for reasons we need to address up front.
Most (but not all) of these stories involve minority males under the age of 18. To avoid appearing racist, or to actively suppress the facts in the stories, the reporters, editors, and producers involved euphemize the alleged perpetrators by referring to them the generic “teen.” To be sure, an increasing number of juveniles involved in violent crime are female and white. But all you need to do is spend some time looking at these news reports with an objective eye, and you can see why the news media does not want to be more accurate.
If I were to write a news story about someone with Down’s Syndrome, and say that person is “retarded,” that would generally be offensive, because the word now carries with it a certain stigma, and there are other options. I’m all for accuracy in language, though, so I can see certain contexts where it’s still most accurate to use words such as “mental retardation,” if attributed to clinicians or in the context of a clinical diagnosis.
On the flip side, a word such as “teen” continues to have an almost inherent positive connotation, in spite of its widespread usage in news stories about violent thugs. When I say something like “A bunch of teens were at the mall today,” you may imagine a group of harmless, unarmed, relatively polite teenagers who don’t pose a violent threat to anyone.
It’s a word association game. Depending on to whom I’m talking, each person will conjure a different image of a teenager when I insert the word “teen” into the conversation. Still, the one image most won’t have in their mind is an underage, sociopathic juvenile, roaming inner-city streets with illegally obtained semi-automatic weapons, ready and willing to hurt someone.
Everyone knows there has to be a better word or term for people who do this.
⚖️Four Teens Charged in Brutal Austin Kidnapping: 𝐀 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐋
Official immigration status of Jose Rojas-Alvarado, Oscar Armando Santiago-Martinez, Angel Lemus-Perez, and Carlos Roberto Oliva-Villeda has not been… pic.twitter.com/cASrCreMse
— Tosca Austen (@ToscaAusten) April 10, 2026
In this case, it was a group of extremely violent, seemingly Hispanic males in Texas who were arrested for this crime. Because they were underage, the news media referred to them with the same word you might use to describe your own daughter’s homecoming dance group – “teens.”
The two underage girls from Florida below aren’t old enough to purchase a pack of cigarettes legally, but they were fully capable of plotting to kill a classmate in what Fox News described as “a ‘blood ritual’ to resurrect Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza.”
Florida teens charged with attempted first-degree m*rder after plotting to k*ll a classmate laugh in police car and joke about looking good in their mugshots pic.twitter.com/DR7bi55e9Q
— 6ixBuzzTV (@6ixbuzztv) March 12, 2026
The internet is packed with stories where the word “teens” is associated with some of the most horrific and unthinkable acts a human can do.
SAD NEWS🚨: Horrific footage just surfaced from a Queens NYC park:
15-year-old Jaden Pierre was jumped by a group of teens on the basketball court… then fatally shot in the chest at point-blank range.He never stood a chance.
Another young life stolen in broad daylight.… pic.twitter.com/dnp4yIFTO6
— Officer Lew (@officer_Lew) April 18, 2026
Sometimes the “teens” in the news story make up an unruly mob.
🚨 NOW: Navy Yard teen takeover dispersal in Washington DC.
Police and authorities are actively dispersing a large gathering of teens in the Navy Yard area (one of DC’s upscale waterfront neighborhoods). pic.twitter.com/pt5YySXyDZ
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) April 12, 2026
These are very adult crimes, not simply the impulsive acts of “teens.”
INSANE FOOTAGE: Teens set a car on fire during a street takeover in Chicago pic.twitter.com/0CxfLl3gRW
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) April 22, 2026
And it’s not just the U.S. In Canada, they have their share of “teen” crime as well.
Islamic teens in Canada seen throwing fireworks inside of a retirement home occupied with elderly folks.
Import the third world, become the third world. pic.twitter.com/roxufgu5WG
— AmericanPapaBear™ (@AmericaPapaBear) March 6, 2026
In the interest of time and space, we’ll stop here, but if you think this is the half of it, think again. Just search online for “teens arrested” or “teens charged,” and you’ll go down a rabbit hole that may take hours — and you still will have just scratched the surface.
The point is, we have to find the right word to describe these criminals, and so as a starting point, we need to know which word to stop using. “Teens” is that word. Deciding not to use it will force society to look for a better, more accurate word, and in the process, start to recognize and confront the real systemic problems we have with crime in America among young people. For now, I’m going to use the word “juvenile,” but even there, I don’t think that really captures the very serious nature of the perpetrators in so many cases.
The people who would have you use “teens” are the same who would have you cover up or hide the sources of so much crime in America. We can no longer afford to do that. Sometimes a thug is a thug no matter what his background, and we have to say it.
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