Ok, hopefully I can say this quickly but I tend to get on rants this late at night eh errr early in the morning.
It doesn't have to do with where you live, meaning the neighborhood, it has to do with HOW you live. There are some people who simply cant afford more. Some may say get a better paying job. At times they cant, yes there are some who won't but some truly can not. Yes at times it is their fault due to past mistakes whether it be dropping out of school, teenage pregnancy or whatever the case may be. Yes that is their fault, however other than maybe getting a GED and lets face it a high school education does not take you very far these days, they can not do anything about their past mistakes all they can do is move forward. One of my favorite sayings to a screw up in my family who gets ALL the attention for doing the wrong things while I am overlooked for doing the right things is:
THAT WAS YOUR PAST YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR FUTURE!
Now, I grew up poor. I lived in a trailer park in Lothian with my grandmother. I never realized it was a "bad thing" until I got older and others informed me it was. I then moved with my mom at the age of 14. She lived in Mitchellville, now labeled Upper Marlboro. The community is Lake Arbor. Now the people in that neighborhood right on the outskirts of the hood, ghetto whatever you want to call it were not ghetto. Most of them were black. We lived in the townhouses, most of the black people lived in the big houses. They were nice people. Going to Largo High School was no easy task for a white kid from the sticks so I went to a vocational school instead. You have good and bad wherever you go and when something goes wrong, you can't always blame the neighborhood, that is a cop out for the people who are really to blame. Not the neighborhood, but the neighbors who saw these issues, the mother who knew there were problems and the father that lived so far away his impact was not felt by this kid.
Let look at other situations. We have the Menendez (spell?) brothers, rich well to do boys definately not in a ghetto, killed their parents. We have the Colombine shooters, I believe all white and certainly not from a ghetto. Something just goes wrong sometimes that we can not explain. We as parents are not always guilty of the loose screw but we are guilty of not paying attention, not recognizing the signs and then when we see the signs, not doing anything about it.
When I got married, at 19 to a man who was 23 (my husband) already with a 3 year old child, I was dirt poor! I had my daughter at almost 21. Those were MY choices. Do I want my kids to make the same choices NO! I want them to stay at home as long as they can and wait as long as they can. When married, that "trailer" I grew up in and which was created the year I was born, was passed down to me. It was a dump! I didn't see that though until others pointed it out to me. That was the only time I felt that I was "white trailer park trash" was when others commented. When I was in my trailer, I did not even realize it was a trailer. I became envious of what others had at times until one day I said "I have to stop wanting what others have and be greatful for what I do have, my kids are warm, have a roof over their heads (although at times it leaked) and they are healthy and safe. My kids recognized the difference because it had become socially unacceptable for good, decent people to live in a trailer. I was a nanny in big rich houses, they came with me because I could not afford a "real" job and pay daycare too. Combined me and hubby probably made $25,000 a year. It was a stepping stone in life. I knew I would not be there forever although the 10 years I was, felt like forever at times. But then at times, I find myself when paying a whopping mortgage wishing things were simpler again and all I had to pay was $465 a month in lot rent!
I think life, home, happiness is created by you the individual. Life is what you make of it. If you live in an area and you think of it as a ghetto, then to you it will be a ghetto. I think regardless of where or what you live in, you should take pride in it and should teach your children to be proud of where they live and not to fault others for having less. Now my cousin lives in my old trailer. She may be there forever. Where my kids always referred to it as a house, her kids refer to it as a trailer and call others trailer trash and feel that way themselves. Why? because they have heard it and they now will become a product of their environment.
Whether you are a stock broker on wall street or a single mother working at Mc Donalds, we all want more for our kids and if you are working...YOU ARE WORKING. It doesn't matter where as long as you are doing the absolute best that you can at that given moment. Things may change later on and you may do better or things could change for the worst, however they change as long as you don't give up, then you have nothing to be ashamed of.
Regardless of where these people lived, this was a tradgedy. Why the mother didn't do something sooner, I don't know. Maybe because if she had turned to the police or the juvenile system they would have seen her son as another "ghetto hood rat" and placed him somewhere just to get rid of him until he was 18 and then they would release him to commit more crimes only to throw away the key. Lets face it, if we are looking at them that way, how do you think the law enforcement agencies and the politicians are looking at them? We need to stop looking at where they came from and look at the facts, this was a child. Another child was killed and a mother was killed. Doesn't matter where they came from.
Ok, enough....I told you I go on forever. I don't want to appear high and mighty like I never refer to people as "ghetto" or "Trailer trash" I do. Some people just are! They could be driving a BMW that cuts me off on route 4 and I just may call them a piece of trash!
My last Jerry Springer thought of the day, I heard this somewhere and I am not sure if I have it exact but here goes When your time comes and you are standing before God, you will not be judged based on the size of your house, the size of your bank account or the car that you drove, your judgement will be passed based on whether you made the difference in the life of a child.
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Anyone who had to make a decision to not fall into the trap or remain comfortable in the hood fought the odds so it's not just a decision. 
@ sinwagon