ABSTRACT
In the 1990s, a media frenzy fueled by the predictions of a few social scientists led to great concern over an allegedly developing group of juvenile
superpredators
(Glassner, 1999; Steinberg, 1999). These superpredators were described before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Youth Violence by James Wootton, president of the Safe Streets Coalition, as
committing brutal crimes against other people, operating with no remorse, and being the ultimate urban nightmare (Federal Document Clearing House, 1997). Wootton also warned the senate subcommittee that the number of these superpredators is growing. This testimony was based largely on a 1995 report for the Council on Crime in America, a conservative special-interest group, and the work of Professor John DiIulio. This report advised of a “ticking time bomb” that would explode as the juvenile population of the United States increased over the next few years (Butterfield, 1996, p. 6). DiIulio (1995, p. 15) predicted that the “large population of 7-to 10-year-old boys now growing up fatherless, godless, and jobless; and surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults; will give rise to a new and more vicious group of predatory street criminals than the nation has ever known.” DiIulio’s predictions were widely disseminated by both printand broadcast-media outlets (Schiraldi and Keppelhoff, 1997).
