"REPORT FINDS SURGE IN HOMICIDAL TEENS" shrieks a 1992 headline in the Chicago Tribune. "Big Shots: An Inside Look at the Deadly Love Affair Between America's Kids and Their Guns" reads a Time magazine cover story in August 1993. "Armed Without a Conscience: Handguns Fuel Teen Violence" frets the bold writing in a 1996 series on juvenile crime in the San Diego Union-Tribune. For years, newspapers, magazines, and television have flooded the public with so many stories like these that most people believe that teen violence is one of America's most serious crime problems, maybe the most serious.

Scary statistics

People find the extraordinary increases in lethal violence among youth, however, more alarming than the government statistics that show that violence has increased in all segments of the U.S. population in recent years. Fueling the fascination with teen violence are...