I think the friction of an act contributes to the analysis. It isn't hard to get a bitcoin account. It's a number. With other fake numbers assigned to it. Get people to send fake numbers to your fake number.

Should a 17 year old lose prime years of his life? Is there a better way to educate/reform the person?

If you say "Well in this other instance, the book got thrown at so-and-so". To this, I would ask, does that make it right?