Affluenza: How one teen is walking away from 20 years in prison by being born wealthy

     Ethan Couch drove drunk and killed four people. He faced 20 years in prison, but only received probation.

      At the scene of the crime sixteen year old Ethan Couch had a BAC of .24 and had just murdered four pedestrians while driving with friends. The teens had stolen alcohol from Wal-Mart before joy riding at 70 miles per hour before Ethan lost control of the car. Ethan was facing twenty years in prison before a judge sentenced him to ten years probation citing "affluenza", stating the teen was a victim of his affluent and privileged lifestyle which shielded the teen from understanding consequences. The term originated from from a 1997 PBS documentary of the same name which described a social condition resulting from the American

obsession with wealth and materialism. The teen was also sentenced to a year of in-patient treatment at a $500,000 per year California rehabilitation center, paid by his parents. Couch's lawyers describe him as emotionally flat, needing years of therapy and argued that because Ethan's parents placed no limits on his behavior, he did not know that his actions had consequences. His team believes that with one to two years treatment and no contact with his parent's that his life may be salvaged. There are currently five civil wrongful death lawsuits filed against him totaling tens of millions of dollars.
     That this teen is not facing any active jail time presently, though acknowledging and admitting guilt on December 4 is an absolute outrage. While it may be true that this teen did not fully understand the consequences of his behavior, he still murdered four people and put others in critical care. If this had been a young person of color, or really any other person there would be no question of jail time. This is yet another example of class privilege highlighting the ever present failures of our justice systems.



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