Lords of the Flies

From CNN, we learn that no matter how much we complain about our cities and our youth, there are far, far worse places and far, far worse youth.

Two boys, both 13, have been arrested in connection with the killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in an apparent bungled robbery attempt, Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez announced Sunday.
DEA Special Agent Timothy Markey was shot to death on Friday while on vacation visiting a popular Roman Catholic shrine in Tegucigalpa.

The article goes on to describe the two boys as seasoned gang members at 13...and one was the bodyguard of the other. But it gets scarier:

Honduran authorities are struggling to combat high rates of violent crime, much of it involving ruthless youth gangs, known as "maras," concentrated in urban areas.
The Mara Salvatrucha and rival Mara 18 have about 100,000 members and control poor neighborhoods in Honduras' principal cities using violence, threats and extortion.

Imagine...It is like Lord of the Flies on a grand scale. How can a government or a society combat such things without resorting to brutality? How does a society eliminate the devastating poverty that contributes to these conditions?I leave the discussion about whether there is a point to the whole 'War on Drugs' that helped lead to this agent's death to others.
(Crossposted by Bostondreamer at FloridaBlues)