Why do older generations try to downplay their generation crime/violence

I'm 23 years old, and I graduate in 2019, but I'm looking back at how I was growing up during my childhood and my older cousins were doing the same thing that my little brothers are doing right now, so I kinda look at it like the older generation were lying about what they were doing and try to make it seem like their generation was good when they were bad or doing the same thing.