WASHINGTON�It makes no sense to try youth offenders in adult courts, a new report has determined, suggesting that experts find new ways to reduce juvenile crime and its spiraling costs.

The report also alarmingly cites the disproportional confinement of Black youth between the ages of 10-17, a group that comprises 15 percent of the U.S. population in that age group.

"Less Hype, More Help: Reducing Juvenile Crime, What Works and What Doesn�t" is a 93-page report that shows America has the knowledge to substantially reduce youth crime and violence without a substantial increase in spending. However, the reforms that will solve the problem, the report states, are not widely used. Focusing on families, early treatment of conduct problems, positive youth development and early childhood intervention are essential to reversing current trends, experts said.

"The good news from our research is that we really do know what works for stopping most young people from becoming adult criminals," said project director Samuel Halperin of America Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a co-sponsor of the report. "The bad news is that taxpayers continue throwing good money into approaches that sound good but don�t work. No matter how you look at it, �adult time� is nothing but a catchy rhyme with no basis either in reason or research."

AYPF in partnership with the National Urban League, the Child Welfare League of America, the National Crime Prevention Council, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, the National League of Cities and the National Collaboration for Youth published the report.

The groups contend that the traditional approaches of over-reliance on incarceration and additional out-of-home placement, aggressive punishment of low-level youth offenses, under-manned and under-resourced public services and false propaganda have contributed to inadequacies in reducing juvenile crime and keeping communities safe.

Such punishment "imposes on them (youths) cruel and unusual punishment. It shuts the door on the idea that youth is a time of experimentation. If one makes a mistake, it shouldn�t have life-long consequences," Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, minister of health for the Nation of Islam, told The Final Call.

"Most people would be outraged and frightened to know that much of the $10-15 billion being spent every year fighting juvenile crime is not making our communities safer and, in many cases, actually increases the risks of juvenile offenses," commented National Urban League President Hugh Price.

The report concurs. The adult time for adult crime approach does nothing to reduce crime and endangers thousands of young lives. Youths in adult institutions, said the report, "are eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more likely to be sexually assaulted and 50 percent more likely to be attacked by a weapon." In addition, it states that prisons are "excellent places for troubled youth to learn the tricks of the crime trade from grizzled veteran criminals."

The issue of youth doing adult time for adult crime is the mantra for proponents of juvenile adult sentencing, but, according to Houston, Tx., juvenile probation officer Richard Evans, it doesn�t work. "All crimes are adult crimes except for truancy and runaways which actual adults are not going to do. The equation of adult time for adult crime just doesn�t add up."

The total youth arrest rate in America climbed dramatically, from 8,438 arrests per 100,000 youths ages 10-17 in 1993 to 9,219 per 100,000 in 1997. Despite a substantial decline in serious crimes committed by youth since 1993, the report notes that arrests grew 30 percent for disorderly conduct, 73 percent for drug abuse violations (mostly for possession), and 77 percent for curfew violations.

Referrals to juvenile courts also rose during this period of decreasing crime, the study said, from 1.48 million cases in 1993 to 1.76 million in 1997. The largest increase is found in less serious offenses such as disorderly conduct, simple assault, obstruction of justice, and drug violations.

"Alarmist rhetoric about a new generation of juvenile super-predators and a ticking time bomb of juvenile crime pervaded the public consciousness during the 1990s and diverted political leaders� attention from the crucial task of investigating what works. This rhetoric was unfounded," concludes the report.

However, the number of cases formally adjudicated in juvenile courts increased far more quickly and despite the less serious offending. Also, the number of youths placed into secure detention has increased, with Black youths serving as its main clientele.

"We talk about everything as if they were separate�from mass incarceration of Black males to incarcerating juveniles as adults. We have to look comprehensively at racism and understand it as a genetic system of the global white minority. When they attack young Black males it is the same as the attack on older Black males, which is essential to the survival of the global system for white genetic superiority," observed D.C.-based clinical psychiatrist Dr. Francis Cress Welsing.

"We need to examine the type of society that produces children who commit violent acts. Adults produce children," said Dr. Anthony Young, president-elect of the National Assn. of Black Psychologists. "African-American children are exposed to such terrible social conditions which contribute to the type of behavior that we see.

"If the truth was known about what happens to children in the adult prison system, Hollywood would not have the stomach to make movies depicting it. We need to hold people accountable for their behavior; however, we need to put more emphasis on prevention and early intervention."

Affirming the speculation of many, that the juvenile system is just a preschool toward long term adult incarceration for Blacks, the report cites that Black youth between the ages of 10 and 17 constitute 26 percent of juvenile arrests nationwide; 30 percent of delinquency referrals to juvenile court; 33 percent of delinquency cases formally charged in juvenile courts; 40 percent of juveniles removed from their homes by juvenile courts; 45 percent of youth held in juvenile detention; 46 percent of juveniles waived to criminal court and a whopping 60 percent of juveniles serving time in adult prisons.

"This whole hyping of our children as being predators is something that we have to instantly recognize as a racist statement and probably racially motivated," charged Dr. William Spriggs, director of Research and Public Policy at the National Urban League.

"When you say that, you are not serious about reducing crime. It is our kids who are more likely to be confined�locked into criminal behavior�and then come back to prey on our neighborhoods. What they are really saying is that they want to raise the crime rate in our neighborhoods and we have to take them to task on that."

A Florida study of more than 5,000 offenders found that youth offenders transferred to criminal court re-offend more than 50 percent more often and at a shorter time between re-arrests. Similar studies conducted in New York, Pennsylvania and Minnesota found similar results.

With a cost of up to $200 per day, the majority of youths transferred to criminal courts wait months before going to trial. The California Legislative Analyst�s Office estimates that "get-tough" transfer provisions enacted in March could cost taxpayers $100 million per year in added operating costs, plus $200-300 million for new jail construction.

For youth who do not pose an immediate threat to public safety, most of the winning strategies work with young people in their own homes and communities, rather than institutions, said report author Richard Mendel. They focus heavily on the family environment, both in responding to and preventing juvenile crime, he noted.

Multi-systemic Therapy (MT), a family-focused intervention model, demonstrated dramatic success in stopping young people from committing crimes, said a report. South Carolina experienced 43 percent fewer arrests using MT than youth receiving juvenile court services. Missouri had a five year re-arrest rate of 22.1 percent, compared with 71.4 percent of those treated independent of their families. The cost of this therapy is only $4,500 per month, less than one-sixth the cost of one year of incarceration or residential treatment.

With success stories found across the country, experts agree that the best opportunity to reduce crime lies in effective juvenile justice programming and aggressive delinquency prevention.

"This is the 100th year of juvenile courts, and its going out of style. The original purpose of juvenile courts was set up to be a substitute parent. They recognized that children would commit errors and they would need guidance through assisting the parent or replacing the parent. We�re walking away from the original concept of juvenile courts," said Theorious Hickman, president of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice.