Extra, 1998: "Superscapegoating: Teen 'superpredators' hype set stage for draconian legislation"

[Mufaddal]

In light of recent discussions, this 1998 article from FAIR's Extra demonstrates how politicians used the "superpredator" rhetoric to advance harsh and largely racist "tough on crime" initiatives, which resulted in an explosion of minority incarceration, police brutality, and the mass expansion of the prison system (including private prisons). When primary candidates themselves have played an active role in advancing such agendas, it's worth revisiting the consequences.

Superscapegoating
Teen 'superpredators' hype set stage for draconian legislation
By Robin Templeton



Criminalization of youth of color by the media is not a new problem. But lurid press reports of teen “superpredators” have recently spawned federal legislation that may soon extinguish the rehabilitative intent of the juvenile justice system. Proposed laws have passed the House and are now pending in the Senate that would try 13- and 14-year-olds as adults and route people as young as 13 into adult prisons.

Hype about criminal-minded teen “superpredators” has added fuel to an ongoing media fire. A 1996 report by the Berkeley Media Studies Group found that more than half of local news stories on youth involved violence, and more than two-thirds of the violence stories concerned young people under age 25 (American Journal of Public Health, 8/97)—even though 57 percent of violent crime is committed by people aged 25 and over. (Eighty percent is committed by adults over 18.) This media fixation with youth crime has set a tone for public policy.

Hype into law

Rallied by the media, legislators have sounded the alarm that we must prepare ourselves for the attack of the “superpredator.” In May, a bill originally titled the “Violent Youth Predator Act” passed the US House of Representatives; it allows 14-year-olds to be tried as adults and offers $1.5 billion in law enforcement block grants to states that toughen their laws in compliance with federal standards. The Senate version would weaken national protections against jailing juveniles with adults, require states to try juveniles as adults in order to be eligible for federal funding, and allow the federal government to execute people as young as 16.

Full article: http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/superscapegoating/

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1. kick n/t

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