The twentieth century ended amid an explosion of violence in all corners of the globe. However, juvenile violence has probably been center stage more in the United States than in any other industrialized nation. As the 1998–1999 school year ended, we had just experienced a massive display of violence by two young men at a high school in Littleton, Colorado. Both seniors, these two killed twelve of their fellow students and a teacher before turning their assault weapons on themselves. The decade of the 1990s ended in the way it started, with a public grown increasingly apprehensive of its youth. This increase was not limited to the United States; it has been detected in many other countries—England, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany, among others.

It is important to note here also that this anxiety and disquiet induced by youth is...