According to Kohlberg, an individual progresses from the capacity for pre-conventional morality (before age 9) to the capacity for conventional morality (early adolescence), and toward attaining post-conventional morality (once Piaget's idea of formal operational thought is attained), which only a few fully achieve.
If the argument that the children are mostly doing small thefts and inconsequential vandalism is correct it is the one with the most weakness since small thefts and small vandalism is still against the law and it should be punished. It is also bad for citizens and teenagers because the small thefts and vandalism can became bigger and bigger trough the time.
