by Children’s Defense Fund

About the author: The Children's Defense Fund is a national organization that works to educate the nation about the needs of children, especially poor and minority children.

In many ways, fear for our children’s safety was twisted into fear of our children in 1996. Truths about violence and youths were obscured by politicians’ and media hyperbole portraying today’s young children as a coming wave of “superpredator” youths. In fact:
• After a big increase, violence committed by youths has decreased recently for the first time in a decade. While no amount of brutality by or against young people can be tolerated, honest examinations of demographics, crime trends, and the potential of prevention efforts do not indicate that today’s young children should be objects of...