NCJ Number
177283
Date Published
1998
Length
92 pages
Annotation
Two hundred secondary school students were surveyed to determine their perspectives on the causes of juvenile violence and inner-city black adolescents' sense of separatism and to provide solutions to break the cycle of adolescent separatism.
Abstract
The students attended a school that took part in a desegregation program that mixed inner-city and suburban students; 60 percent of the school's students were black and 40 percent were white. The research examined the adolescent separatism in the context of the family, gangs, education, and the community; whether social change can alter social and economic enough to prevent adolescent separatism; and the specific social and economic problems experienced by inner-city adolescents. It also examined the issues of freedom, equality, and leadership in relation to inner-city youth's faith in mainstream society. Results revealed core issues in the lives of black youth today, including music and drugs in their inner-city neighborhoods and the criminogenic lifestyles that impair their ability to emerge into mainstream life. Findings raised serious questions about the future outlook for inner-city youth and inner-city communities, particularly due to limited opportunities for these youth. Findings also indicated the needs to eliminate the guns, music videos, and video games that glamorize violence and desensitize children to it; to involve parents; and to give young people hope that they can obtain jobs and be valued by society. Additional recommendations, analyses of proposed models, footnotes, endnotes, and 33 references