Your comment makes me think of this excerpt from Michael Caine’s Wikipedia entry:
“He had gone into Korea feeling sympathetic to communism, coming as he did from a poor family, but the experience left him permanently repelled.[17] He experienced a situation where he knew he was going to die, the memory of which stayed with him and formed his character; he later said, “The rest of my life I have lived every bloody moment from the moment I wake up until the time I go to sleep.”[18] Caine would like to see the return of national service to help combat youth violence, stating: “I’m just saying, put them in the Army for six months. You’re there to learn how to defend your country. You belong to the country. Then when you come out, you have a sense of belonging rather than a sense of violence”.[19]”
Wikipedia says conscription was abolished in Germany in 2011. There might have been a period before where it was phased down. Don’t know enough about Germany to have an opinion about the extent of conscription and youths misbehaving there.
I know there is no such youth foolery in Finland and they have a very well organized conscription. What I think may also play a role there is that Finland needs conscription for defense but Germany and UK do not.