I can't speak for the kids in DC but growing up in South Louisiana, both my parents worked full time, we had no public transportation (still don't), many places we could hang out closed or are so far out of the way we needed to have someone drive us, everything cost money.

When you're bored, broke, and your parents aren't around to do anything or are too tired to care, you end up doing dumb shit to past the time. While weed, vandalism, sneaking out past curfew, etc are far more minor compared to assault and murder, it still draws parallels. I came up right around the time computers became a common household item, and youtube started becoming a thing. I remember being bored all day at home when I wasn't at school band practice watching videos, many of it far-right content. While I stopped watching a lot of that, I have friends who got indoctrinated into that.

Those who didn't spend their days on the internet like me did drugs or killed themselves.