caught.

My story is a little different.  My crimes were committed during an unruly pique in my life when I was in my early teens.  I was living at the time in an affluent white middle-class neighborhood.  My crimes were for vandalism, shoplifting, and petty theft.  I was caught, and punished by the juvenile justice system.  My sentence was restitution and community service.  My records were sealed when I became an adult.  Since that time I have committed no crimes (save traffic infractions) and I have never been questioned about my past behaviors.  It has never prevented me from moving on with my life nor has it ever come up in any kind of employment situation.  One among many things I learned and extrapolated from this experience is that a young person’s future and potential are in no way determined by the actions of their youth.  But they can be enormously impacted by the reactions responses of society.