by Michael A. Males

About the author: Michael A. Males, a doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine, is the author of The Scapegoat Generation: America’s War on Adolescents.

When a 3-year-old Los Angeles girl was murdered in an apparent gang killing in 1995, nationwide media coverage exploded. When a 3-year-old Beverly Hills boy was murdered by his 37-year-old father three weeks later, notice was scant. Two tragic killings of small children. One cited as the signature of today’s brutal young, the other relatively ignored.

Hype over Juvenile Crime

Candidates of both parties and experts of all stripes proclaim skyrocketing violence among America’s youth as the nation’s most urgent crisis. Images of “children killing children” and “kids more violent at younger ages” grip...