Workshop Title: Youth Violence - Myth or Reality? Presenter: Vincent Schiraldi,

1. Workshop Title: Youth Violence - Myth or Reality? Presenter: Vincent Schiraldi, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, Washington, DC Description: Coverage of crime by the media is badly skewed toward hyperviolent, idiosyncratic acts, presented out of context of the social forces that relate to delinquency. Such non-contextual, exaggerated coverage negatively affects both public opinion and policy making in the field of juvenile justice- - resulting in a populace badly misinformed about the behavior of its own children, and public policy that increasingly is punitive and not preventive. This workshop will examine the role of the media in shaping public opinion about troubled youth and the services and supports that they need. Ironically, in this, the Centennial of the founding of America's Juvenile Court, this phenomenon has America racing away from the core tenets the Juvenile Court invented -- individualization, rehabilitation, confidentiality, and treating kids differently from the way we treat adults -- - and doing so faster than any nation on earth. Contact: Vincent Schiraldi, Executive Director Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 1234 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite C1009 Washington, DC 20005 (202) 737-7270 www.cjcj.org NextSlide Click here to view the CJCJ report,School House Hype: Two Years Later

2. The Children’s Court Centennial Project Second Chances Second Chances, a joint project of The Justice Policy Institute in Washington, DC and the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University, presents profiles of many successful adults who had contact with the juvenile court.It is available for downloading at <www.cjcj.org/centennial>. They’re prosecutors, politicians, poets and probation officers; academics, athletes, attorneys and authors; students, stockbrokers and sales people; football players and firefighters. They’ve worked at the highest levels of government, as advisors to presidents and the U.S. Senate. They’ve served their country honorably. And when they were kids, every one of them was in trouble with the law. But for the protections and rehabilitation of the juvenile court - a uniquely Americaninstitution that was the brainchild of a group of women activists in the 1800s - many of them would simply not be where they are today.