Teen Violence In America

"A powerful and important book that explains the epidemic rise and complex underlying causes of youth violence, and opens a discussion on strategies to protect our children from physical and emotional harm." Our children are our future. Yet every day, new reports come in describing violent assaults against youths, or dramatic increases in gang recruitment of teens, or the terrible, hostile environments children are forced to grow up in. Teen Violence in America is a careful examination of the causes of this epidemic rise in youth violence. But more than that, it opens a discussion on strategies that have been proven most effective for protecting our children from physical and emotional harm. Each of us has a responsibility to do all we can to ensure that children are raised happy, healthy and emotionally whole. Change is needed, as is a renewed commitment to our youth—and the only way that can happen is if we understand the dangers our children face in their daily lives. Teen Violence in America identifies those circumstances that place youths at risk for violent behavior, what ignites this predilection into violent action, and identifies strategies that can be employed to mitigate the damage and put them on a positive life track. From family life to school environment and opportunities, cultural and political influences, drugs and gangs, Teen Violence in America looks deeply into the different factors contributing to this epidemic.

This is a resource for dealing with both perpetrators and victims of violence and understanding the risk factors facing youth. Presenting an assessment of effects of exposure to violence and the continuity of aggression from early childhood to adulthood, it outlines an integration strategy for public policy towards prevention and treatment.

This book identifies and discusses types of youth violence in American society today. Causes of youth violence are discussed and linked to prevention and treatment programs and strategies to assess the likelihood of aggression or violence in children and youths are identified. Other topics covered include violence among girls, gang and drug-related violence, antibullying programs and spatial mapping strategies to reduce violence in schools.

Authors Deborah Prothrow-Stith and Howard R. Spivak— two prominent Boston-area public health officials who played leading roles in that city's turnaround— show that the key to Boston's success was creating an interdisciplinary citywide movement. The city's movement— made up of educators, community leaders, police officers, emergency room workers, activist teens, teen and family member survivors of violence, and many others— worked for more than ten years to implement multifaceted preventive programs that confronted each risk factor for youth violence, including Positive Role Models: Peer mentoring and teacher-training programs Healthy and Safe Communities: Youth centers, after-school programs, and other organized recreational activities Poverty: Economic stimulus policies to help reduce poverty in inner-city and rural areas Pro-Social Behaviors: Conflict resolution and violence prevention curricula in schools Domestic Violence: Home visitation programs and screening to protect kids from domestic violence Gun Buybacks: Reduction in the number of firearms on the streets

On juvenile delinquency in America

A brilliant analysis of the foundations of racist policing in America: the day-to-day brutalities, largely hidden from public view, endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse "Storytelling that can make people understand the racial inequities of the legal system, and...restore the humanity this system has cruelly stripped from its victims.” —New York Times Book Review Drawing upon twenty-five years of experience rep­resenting Black youth in Washington, D.C.’s juve­nile courts, Kristin Henning confronts America’s irrational, manufactured fears of these young peo­ple and makes a powerfully compelling case that the crisis in racist American policing begins with its relationship to Black children. Henning explains how discriminatory and aggressive policing has socialized a generation of Black teenagers to fear, resent, and resist the police, and she details the long-term consequences of rac­ism that they experience at the hands of the police and their vigilante surrogates. She makes clear that unlike White youth, who are afforded the freedom to test boundaries, experiment with sex and drugs, and figure out who they are and who they want to be, Black youth are seen as a threat to White Amer­ica and are denied healthy adolescent development. She examines the criminalization of Black adoles­cent play and sexuality, and of Black fashion, hair, and music. She limns the effects of police presence in schools and the depth of police-induced trauma in Black adolescents. Especially in the wake of the recent unprece­dented, worldwide outrage at racial injustice and inequality, The Rage of Innocence is an essential book for our moment.

Youth violence has long been a contentious and perplexing issue in current debates on crime policy, not the least because of the sharp increase in violence among young minority males from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. Featuring articles by leading American and European scholars from many fields, this book overviews policy issues and research developments concerning crime and violence among the young.

Presents opposing viewpoints on the problem of teen violence, discussing how serious the problem may be, its causes, and ways to reduce it.

The United States has seen rapid proliferation of youth gangs since 1980. During this period, the number of cities with gang problems increased from an estimated 286 jurisdictions with more than 2,000 gangs and nearly 100,000 gang members in 1980 (Miller, 1992) to about 4,800 jurisdictions with more than 31,000 gangs and approximately 846,000 gang members in 1996(Moore and Terrett, in press). An 11-city survey of eighth graders found that 9 percent were currently gang members, and 17 percent said they had belonged to a gang at some point in their lives (Esbensen and Osgood, 1997).Other studies reported comparable percentages and also showed that gang members were responsible for a large proportion of violent offenses. In the Rochester site of the OJJDP-funded Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency, gang members (30 percent of the sample) self-reported committing 68 percent of all violent offenses (Thornberry, 1998). In the Denver site, adolescent gang members (14 percent of the sample) self-reported committing 89 percent of all serious violent offenses (Huizinga, 1997). In another study, supported by OJJDP and several other agenciesand organizations, adolescent gang members in Seattle (15 percent of the sample) self-reported involvement in 85 percent of robberies committed by the entire sample (Battin et al., 1998).This Bulletin reviews data and research to consolidate available knowledge on youth gangs that are involved in criminal activity. Following a historical perspective, demographic information ispresented. The scope of the problem is assessed, including gang problems in juvenile detention and correctional facilities. Several issues are then addressed by reviewing gang studies to provide aclearer understanding of youth gang problems.An extensive list of references is provided for further review.