venile murderers used a firearm, up from five in ten in 1983. * The number of juveniles murdered increased 82 percent between 1984 and 1994. * The nationwide juvenile arrest rate for violent crimes increased 50 percent between 1988 and 1994.Hawkins 8Local police, prosecutors, and inner-city preachers know that them kids doing the violent crimes are more impulsively violent and remorseless than ever. For instance, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham who sits on the Council on Crime in America, speaks of the frightening reality of elementary school kids who pack guns instead of lunches. Likewise, Dan Coburn, a former Superior Court Justice and Public Defender in New Jersey, recently wrote that "This new wrote horde from hell kills, maims, and terrorizes merely to become known, or for no reason at all. These teens have no fear of dying and no concept of living." Even maximum-security prisoners agree. When asked by Diiulio what was triggering the explosion of violence among today's young street criminals, a group of long- and life-term New Jersey prisoners did not voice the conventional explanations such as economic poverty orjoblessness. Instead, these hardened men cited the absence of people family, adults, teachers, preachers, coaches- who would care enough about young males to nurture and discipline them. In the vacuum, drug dealers and "gansta rappers" serve as role models. "I was a bad-ass streetgladiator," one convicted murderer said, "but these kids are stone-coldpredators." (10)In every community, roughly 2 percent of the juvenile offender population is responsible for up to 60 percent of the violent juvenile crime. Only 25 to 35 juveniles in every 100,000 members of the population will engage in criminal activity that matches the Serious Habitual Offender pattern. Based on criteria developed by the Reagan team at theDepartment of Justice, this means that 0.03 percent to 0.04 percent of all juveniles between 14 and 17 year...
