Appalling reports of juvenile crime and violence are becoming increasingly commonplace. For example, in St. Louis in 1996, a fifteen-year-old pregnant girl was shot and killed on the school bus by a fellow classmate. In Florida, a thirteen- year-old student shot and killed a popular teacher in 2000. In the same year in Washington, a six-year-old boy killed a classmate after an argument.

Media portrayals of events such as these have led some to perceive an increase in youth crime and violence. Further, statistics reveal that a demographic surge of adolescent males may lead to further increases in youth violence, according to criminologist James A. Fox. Fox alleges that murder rates among fourteen- to seventeen-year-old males increased 124 percent from 1986 to 1991, and it is this age group that will increase dramatically by 2005, causing the current level of juvenile crime to skyrocket.

Others contend, however...