This paper examines the effects of the Fast Track preventive intervention on youths' functioning in three domains: disruptive behavior problems, involvement with deviant peers, and social skills during the middle school years. Eight hundred ninety-one children had been randomly assigned by sets of schools within four sites to intervention (n =…

While delinquency has multiple causes, deviant peer affiliation is one of the strongest. In fact, a high proportion of violence, drug use, and other deviant behaviors are committed in groups, rather than in isolation. This article explores how practices within educational, mental health, juvenile justice, and community programs can lead to deviant…

Metaphors can both inspire and mislead the public. Current metaphors for youth violence are inconsistent with scientific evidence about how chronic violence develops and evoke inaccurate or harmful reactions. Popular, problematic metaphors include "superpredator", "quarantining the contagious", "corrective surgery", "man as computer", "vaccine",…