问答题 The number of violent teens has grown in recent years, even as the population of teenagers has contracted. But the teen population has bottomed out and is now on the upswing. If current rates of offending remain unchanged, the number of teens who commit murder and other serious violent crimes shall increase, if only because of the demographic turnaround in the population at risk. However, given the worsening conditions in which children are being raised, given the breakdown of all our institutions as well as of our cultural norms, given our wholesale disinvestment in youth, our nation faces the grim prospect of a future wave of juvenile violence that may make the coming years look like “the good old days”. The hopeful news is that there is still time to stem the tide - to prevent the next wave of youth crime. But we must act now - by reinvesting in schools, recreation, job training, support for families, and mentoring. We must act now while this baby-boomerang generation is still young and impressionable, and will be impressed with what a teacher, a preacher, or some other authority figures has to say. If we wait until these children reach their teenage years and the next crime wave is upon us, it may be too late to do much about it. The challenge for the future, therefore, is how best to deal with youth violence. Unfortunately, we are obsessed with quick and easy solutions that will not work, such as the wholesale transfer of juveniles to the jurisdiction of the adult court, parental responsibility laws, midnight curfews, the V-chip, boot camps, three strikes, even caning and capital punishment, at the expense of long-term and difficult solutions that will work, such as providing young children with strong, positive role models, quality schools, and recreation programs.

问答题 reduced in size (Para. 1)

问答题 increase (Para. 1)

问答题 the failure of a system (Para. 1)

问答题 unpleasant and depressing (Para. 1)

问答题 prevent something from spreading or developing (Para. 2)

问答题 easily influenced (Para. 2)

问答题 act or operate effectively (Para. 3)

问答题 regulation requiring a person to be home at a certain prescribed time (Para. 3)

问答题 involving the loss of life (Para. 3)

问答题 activity people do for pleasure (Para. 3)