Not saying it's not a social issue, but there's a lot of other factors as well.
Do they? I spent a few minutes searching but couldn't find an answer.
It was pure crime of opportunity.
Car theft isn't even the half of it. Wait until you find out about the growth of card skimming in the inner city driven by social media. There are /many/ /many/ anti-social behaviors that are culturally rewarded within certain subcultures in the US. To even get to the point you have such a nihilistic world view, you have to have grown up in an environment without any serious positive role models, minimal to no hope for the future, and no realistic pathway in life to leave behind the circumstances you find yourself in. There are generations of people who have been bathed in this nihilism, and it's created a negative outcome for society on generational scale that's spreading.
> Over 10,000 cars were stolen in Milwaukee in 2021
A third of them weren't Kias OR Hyundais
> American social dysfunction
All your stats are about Milwaukee, not America at large
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbTrLyqL_nw
Over 10,000 cars were stolen in Milwaukee in 2021. That's one stolen auto for every 60 Milwaukee residents, young and old.
South Korea's full of vulnerable Kia and Hyundai vehicles, yet doesn't have this problem of teenage serial car thieves. American social dysfunction is a big part of the equation that results in the numbers above.