I am reading a book by Bill Bryson called Thunderbolt Kid where he talks about growing up in 1950s USA.
As well as discussing growing up in 50s USA he also talks about some of the social things going on at the time (cold war, television, atom bombs, teenagers etc).
The 50s in the USA was when the "teenager" first came to prominence, before then people went from child to adult with nothing in between.
At that time you had Rock and Roll (Elvis, Little Richard etc), the Hells angel's dressed in black with huge motorbikes terrorizing neighbourhoods, kids with their own money, and kids with their own cars where they could "make out" in the back seat.
Adults in the USA were terrified and church leaders and politicians gave emotional speeches about how the teenagers of the day were out of control.
As jake-the-peg says, EVERY generation thinks the kids of today are beyond help.
I have to say though that when I was young (in the 1960s) knocking on someones door and running away was the height of "danger".
Nowadays kids of 14 steal cars, go on a high speed chase through the local town pursued by the police, dump the car and then set fire to it.
So I suppose it is all relative.