le, drugs, gangs, and the availability of weapons have all been cited as contributors to the rise in adolescent homicide. In addition, such things as aggression in boys and the crumbling of the "moral pillars" of society have been blamed (Toufexis, 1989, p. 54). Some experts have indicated that youth murder is caused by the negative impact of the media. They believe that movies, television and rock music have desensitized many young people and have thus made them capable of heinous crimes such as murder. other experts have claimed that young people who kill are mentally defective. For example, a 1988 study by D. 0. Lewis revealed that, of 14 youths who had committed murder, "nine suffered from major neurological impairments, seven had suffered psychotic disorders prior to their sentencing, and only two had full-scale IQ scores above 9011 (Weisman, 1989, p. 130).
Many young people in urban ghettoes turn to violent crime because they feel that they have no alternatives to their lives of poverty and degradation. Because they see their lives as hopeless, such youths are more readily capable of killing if it seems to serve their immediate aims. The hopelessness of their situation results
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