Adolescents may especially need social and emotional help. They are learning how to handle new demands in school and social life while dealing with new, intense emotions (both positive and negative), and they are increasingly feeling that they should do so without adult guidance. Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are one way to help…

Liliana Escobar-Chaves and Craig Anderson investigate two important trends among American youth and examine the extent to which the two trends might be related. First, the authors note that U.S. youth are spending increasing amounts of time using electronic media, with the average American youngster now spending one-third of each day with some…

Although boys engage in more delinquent and criminal acts than do girls, female delinquency is on the rise. In 1980, boys were four times as likely as girls to be arrested; today they are only twice as likely to be arrested. In this article, the author explores how the juvenile justice system is and should be responding to the adolescent female…

Elizabeth Scott and Laurence Steinberg explore the dramatic changes in the law's conception of young offenders between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. At the dawn of the juvenile court era, they note, most youths were tried and punished as if they were adults. Early juvenile court reformers argued strongly…

This collection of articles summarizes knowledge and research about how gun violence affects children and youth and discusses which policies hold promise for reducing youth gun violence. The papers are: (1) "Statement of Purpose" (Richard E. Behrman); "Children, Youth, and Gun Violence: Analysis and Recommendations" (Kathleen…

Reviews the state of knowledge about the magnitude of youth violence, its causes and consequences; and explores the effectiveness of interventions available to criminal justice, school, and mental health authorities, as well as the potential of new treatment initiatives. The article concludes with recommendations for future policymaking and…