Judging from countless media reports in newspapers from coast to coast, it would surely seem that we have finally got a handle on the Nation’s crime problem. The most recent FBI release of crime statistics for 1995 revealed a welcome drop in violent crime, including an 8 per cent decline in homicide. (46. After four straight years of lower crime levels, some crime experts and law enforcement officials have even dared boldly to suggest that we’re winning the war against crime.)Though recent trends are encouraging, at least superficially, there is little time to celebrate these successes. It is doubtful that today’s improving crime picture will last for very long. Most likely, this is the calm before the crime storm. (47. While many police officials can legitimately feel gratified about the arrested crime rate — better that it be down than up — there is much more to the great crime drop story.) Hidden beneath the overall drop in homicide and other violent crime is a soaring rate of mayhem among teenagers.(48. There are actually two crime trends ongoing in America — one for the young and one for the mature, which are moving in opposite directions.) Since 1990, for example, the rate of homicide committed by adults, ages 25 and older, has declined 18 per cent as the baby boomers matured well past their crime prime years. At the same time, however, the homicide rate by teenagers, ages 14 to 17, has increased 22 per cent. Even more alarming and tragic is that over the past decade, the homicide rate at the hands of teenagers has nearly tripled, increasing 172 percent from 1985 to 1994.Therefore, while the overall U.S. homicide rate has indeed declined in recent years, the rate of juvenile murder continues to grow, unabated by the spread of community policing, increased incarceration, and a variety of other popular crime-fighting strategies. (49. In the overall crime mix, the sharp decline in crime among the large adult population has eclipsed the rising crime rate among the relatively small population of teens.)Trends in age-specific violent arrest rates for homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault confirm the patterns found in homicide statistics. Teenagers now exceed all age groups, even young adults, in their absolute rate of arrest for violent crime overall. Conventional wisdom in criminology — that young adults generally represent the most violence-prone group—apparently needs to be modified in light of these disturbing changes.The causes of the surge in youth violence since the mid-1980s reach, of course, well beyond demographics. (50. There have been tremendous changes in the social context of crime over the past decade, which explain why this generation of youth—the young and the ruthless—is more violent than others before it.) Our youngsters have more dangerous drugs in their bodies, more deadly weapons in their hands, and a seemingly more casual attitude about violence. It is clear that too many teenagers in this country, particularly those in urban areas, are plagued with idleness and even hopelessness.