Superpredator

announced that he would propose and support legislation that would give federal prosecutors "greater flexibility to try violent juveniles as adults". The superpredator or super-predator is a type of criminal in a now-discredited criminological theory that became popular in the 1990s in the United States, positing that a small but increasing population of impulsive (often urban) young men were willing to commit extremely violent crimes without remorse. Criminologist and political scientist John J. DiIulio Jr. theorized that superpredators were a growing phenomenon and predicted a large increase in youth crime and violence as a result. At the time, the idea of superpredators contributed to a nationwide moral panic regarding juvenile crime, particularly Black juvenile crime. Proponents of the theory warned of "a blood bath of violence" or "Lord of the Flies on a massive scale". American lawmakers seized on this idea, and implemented tough-on-crime legislation for juvenile offenders across the country, including life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The theory would later face criticism, which led to its supporters getting protested against for calling Black people superpredators and Dilulio having to admit that his theory was flawed.

announced that he would propose and support legislation that would give federal prosecutors "greater flexibility to try violent juveniles as adults". The superpredator or super-predator is a type of criminal in a now-discredited criminological theory that became popular in the 1990s in the United States, positing that a small but increasing population of impulsive (often urban) young men were willing to commit extremely violent crimes without remorse. Criminologist and political scientist John J. DiIulio Jr. theorized that superpredators were a growing phenomenon and predicted a large increase in youth crime and violence as a result. At the time, the idea of superpredators contributed to a nationwide moral panic regarding juvenile crime, particularly Black juvenile crime. Proponents of the theory warned of "a blood bath of violence" or "Lord of the Flies on a massive scale". American lawmakers seized on this idea, and implemented tough-on-crime legislation for juvenile offenders across the country, including life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The theory would later face criticism, which led to its supporters getting protested against for calling Black people superpredators and Dilulio having to admit that his theory was flawed. A chart created by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention titled "Total juvenile detention chart for the U.S.". It shows that the number of juveniles detained pending trial was at its highest after Dilulio announced the super-predator theory in 1995, and decreased starting in 2001, after he denounced the theory. On November 27, 1995, John Dilulio shared his theory about superpredators in his article for The Weekly Standard. The media proceeded to report on this theory throughout the 1990s, leading to criminologists and law enforcement officials showing support for it, with some of them claiming that because of superpredators, the nation was being terrorized by children like in Lord of the Flies '. According to Michael E. Jennings, this caused stereotypes about African American men to be reinforced, leading to the public's conclusion that African American males were predators that society needed to deal with. The media's continued use of the word "superpredators" also caused it to enter the national zeitgeist of the 1990s, leading to journalists and talk show hosts such as Oprah Winfrey using the term without referencing DiIulio. On January 25, 1996, First Lady Hillary Clinton used the term superpredator in a speech at Keene State College. In this speech, she said that the fourth challenge shared by Americans was dealing with crime and gangs of "kids that are called superpredators," who lacked remorse for their actions. On September 28th, 1999, the Senate Subcommittee on Youth Violence for the 106th Congress held its first session to examine funding for juvenile crime prevention programs so that groups that received funding would work in coordination with the juvenile justice system. In the opening statement for this session, Senator Jeff Sessions acknowledged that people saw the juvenile court system as a punishment system. By the end of the 1990s, the fear of superpredators caused politicians throughout the United States to advocate for the dismantlement of juvenile protections. This led to most states adopting policies that allowed juveniles to be tried in adult court, as well as making the punishments for juveniles convicted of crimes harsher. In 2001, Dilulio acknowledged that his theory was flawed and apologized for the consequences that it wrought. In the years after this acknowledgment, the number of juveniles detained pending trial decreased dramatically. During her campaign for the United States presidential election in 2016, Hillary Clinton was confronted by an activist named Ashley Williams at a private fundraiser in Charleston, South Carolina. At this fundraiser, Williams began protesting Clinton's description of Black people as superpredators in her 1996 speech. Following this incident, Clinton received more criticism for her use of the term, as well as for her support of the 1994 Crime Bill, ultimately leading to her giving an apology for her language, but not her support of the Crime Bill, on February 25, 2016.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1374738649 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.