boys will be boys

It is hard, often fruitless, to attempt to curb the natural playfulness and tendency to mischief of most growing boys.

Even grown men usually remain somewhat boyish at heart.

Predatory behavior of suitors should be viewed as excusable because it comes naturally to many boys and men.

2018, Kilpatrick, Mary, “Why the 'boys will be boys' justification of sexual violence doesn't fly: Comparing Kavanaugh to Steubenville”, in Shatter on Cleveland.com:

It's not hard to see the parallels between the sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the 2012 Steubenville rape case. Three decades apart, there is one central difference: Kavanaugh has denied the allegations, and has never been criminally charged. In the Steubenville case, two star football players were convicted of raping a girl, and sentenced to prison. But amid the outrage in both cases, there has been a chorus of "boys will be boys," the excuse of youth, of teenage brains that can't control themselves and the victim shaming that accompanies that perception.