y should have (regardless of their justification for such a perception), the typical response is to identify the party responsible for such denial. When such identification is established, the essence of a conflict situation--the issue and the parties--has been defined. Conflict may be the result of real inequities among parties, or conflict may stem from cultural differences that shape perceptions.
Crime in the United States, particularly violent crime, has been a major concern of the American population for decades. A particularly troublesome factor in recent years has been the increase in the proportion of all crimes which are perpetrated by young offenders (Silverstein 14). Persons under the age of 18 years old are responsible for approximately 32 percent of serious property crimes which are cleared by arrest and for approximately 17 percent of violent crimes so cleared (Bureau of Justice Statistics 241). Criminal behavior by young people represents a growing social problem in the country (Phillips 555-574). This behavior ranges from vandalism to property crimes and to crimes of violence including murder (Drevitch 4-5).
There is a major difference in the rate of violent behavior by young persons depending upon the criterion measure that is used. The 17 percent rate cited at an earlier point in this discussion was based on the proportion of persons under the age of 18 years old included among the crimes of violence that were cleared by arrest. When all violent crimes--whether or not cleared by arrest--are considered, however, the proportion of such crimes committed by young persons increases. In 1992, as an illustration, 19 percent of all single-offender violent criminal acts were perpetrated by persons under the age of 18 years old (Bureau of Justice Statistics 59). An additional 10 percent of such acts were committed by persons aged 18-to-20 years old, and an additional 31 percent of such acts were committed by pers...