A
judge's decision to give 16-year-old Ethan Couch 10 years of
probation for the fatal accident sparked outrage from relatives of
those killed and has led to questions about the defense strategy. A
psychologist testified in Couch's trial in a Fort Worth juvenile
court that as a result of "affluenza," the boy should not
receive the maximum 20-year prison sentence prosecutors were seeking.
The
term "affluenza" was popularized in the late 1990s by
Jessie O'Neill, the granddaughter of a past president of General
Motors, when she wrote the book "The Golden Ghetto: The
Psychology of Affluence." It has since been used to describe a
condition in which children — generally from richer families —
have a sense of entitlement, are irresponsible, make excuses for poor
behavior, and sometimes dabble in drugs and alcohol, explained Dr.
Gary Buffone, a Jacksonville, Fla., psychologist who does family
wealth advising.
But
Buffone said in a telephone interview Thursday that the term wasn't
meant to be used as a defense in a criminal trial or to justify such
behavior.
Source:
usatoday
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