Argumentative Essay On Couches Behavior

on June 15, 2013, in Tarrant county, Texas, 16-year-old Ethan Couch became responsible for the death of 4 people. Couch was given 10 years’ probation in juvenile court, on four counts of intoxicated manslaughter, for recklessly driving. Not only was Couch driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana and Valium, he was also in possession of suspended license.
On the day of the crash, Couch was speeding down the road at 70 miles per hour in a residential zone. Couches blood alcohol was measured and shown to be three times the legal alcohol limit. He lost control of the pick-up truck and plowed into a group of people standing outside a house. Four people were killed in the collision; two passengers in Couch's truck suffered serious bodily
Couches parents openly admitted that their son had access to drugs and alcohol at an early age. “He was allowed to drive to his private school when he was 13. He often stayed by himself or with friends, largely unsupervised, at his family's second home,” said the Chicago Tribune.” Stated Luthar Barry, who has spent about 20 years studying and documenting the growth of dysfunction among affluent youth writes in the great debate, “It would be foolish to allow an absurd effort to minimize one teenager’s responsibility for a horrific tragedy to obscure growing evidence that we have a significant and growing crisis on our hands.” She claims that “The children of the affluent are becoming increasingly troubled, reckless, and self-destructive.”
Although the affluenza defense may seem like a distinctly modern phenomenon, its roots go way back into the past. Many wonder how affluenza will affect our society in the future. "Unfortunately, given the fact that this case was successful, it's more likely that more attorneys are going to pick it up and wave it as their banner," says Gary Buffon, a Jacksonville, Fla., psychologist, specializing in family wealth