This report tackles the causes of why an increasing number of youths in the region are engaging in criminal activities, by presenting evidence that this phenomenon could be driven by a change in the incentives to commit crime, rather than created as a result of a generation of youths who differ inherently from its predecessors. In order to do so, this report develops a new dynamic framework with which to analyze juvenile crime as a rational choice in which forwardlooking youths decide between legal and criminal activities, and their skills are shaped by their past and present choices. In order to quantify the consequences of each decision, this analysis recognizes the effects of on-the-job training, on-the-crime training, the school of crime in correctional facilities and the social stigmatization of conviction.