ABSTRACT
Youth violence is on our minds. We are worried, despite evidence that the incidence of youth violence has actually been decreasing steadily since the mid-1990s. Recent highly publicized school shootings; reports of gang violence; young people obsessed with violent video games, movies, and song lyrics; and media prone to publicize all incidents of violence no matter how tragic or trivial have left us with a sense of crisis and eminent danger. Individual incidents of violence involving youth are compelling, because they bring forth all our fears for our children. They mobilize our instincts to do whatever is necessary to protect them from a seemingly hostile world. Media attention to violence by youth has created a grossly distorted but socially important focus on this problem. As tragic as the school shootings are, the numbers of deaths is small to the point of statistical insignificance. But the social significance is great. Seeing the halls of learning turned into shooting galleries has understandably galvanized the American public's attention. The meanings go beyond the issues of school safety. These incidents have provoked a great deal of soul searching and anguishing about the health of our society. Such a public reaction can, and should, prompt a more sober look at certain social phenomena that surround such incidents as school shootings. They should raise questions about how such unhappy children can be unrecognized by their families, schools, and communities until tragedy happens.
