American culture fetishizes “tough love” often at the expense of empathy. Its why our culture bounces between “beat children and make them work” and “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas”. These institutions peddle the idea that parents are too soft on bad kids and since it fits our cultural narratives parents and judges often fall for it. This leads to overcorrection (“just talk it through with kids without punishment or consequences”) that reinforces the narrative.

There’s also this idea that teenagers arent really people with rights yet. Like, its insane to me that one can force a 16 year old into such a place against their will. They aren’t adults yet, but they’re close and deserve basic rights. But we have a strong cultural feeling of pater potestas when it comes to underage people.