Not to excuse them, but there's this perception that these kids actually have "parents" in the first place. In many of these households, the fathers are either absent, dead, or in prison. The mother, if she's actually involved in the kids life, is either struggling with multiple jobs or dealing with their own mental health/addictions. Which leaves it to the grandmothers and aunts to provide whatever supervision they can. Anyway, DC's "juvenile justice" system has been broken since the '80s for a number of reasons and was basically run under a court order for 35 years. https://dcist.com/story/20/02/06/after-35-years-d-c-will-finally-have-control-of-its-youth-rehabilitation-services-again/