Law School Hosts First Session Of Conference on Youth Violence

A conference on youth violence yesterday at the Law School brought in speakers from diverse backgrounds to discuss what one speaker called America's "greatest crisis."

While those attending differed on the root of the problem, they agreed that the crisis is immediate--and that the legal system can't tackle it all.

The conference, co-sponsored by Harvard's Criminal Justice Institute and the Boston College Law School, brought lawyers and academics together with educators, community activists, and inner-city youths.

According to one speaker, violent crimes committed by adolescents have risen by 50 percent since 1987--twice the increase in adult crimes over the same time period.

The afternoon session featured a panel discussion on the juvenile justice system and plans for its informs. About 350 conference attendees packed into Austin Hall to watch the debate.

The discussion centered around the need for a separate legal system for teenagers and children.

"The problem with the juvenile court is not a failure of implementation, it is a problem of conception," said Barry Feld, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Feld said that the cycle of juvenile crime should be broken with a greater emphasis on social programs and education--not by a special court system.

"It's not responsible to think that the legal system is the way to help young people," Feld said.

But other panelists said court reform, rather than abolition, would be the only feasible solution.

"You find people, frustrated with the failures of the system, coming to absurdly simple solutions," said Bernadine Dohrn, director of Northwestern University's Children and Family Justice Center.

Massachusetts Court of Appeals Justice Roderick Ireland said judges are overworked, often acting as the only bridge between social service agencies and the legal system.

"The reality is, the judges are between a rock and a hard place," Ireland said.

The afternoon session also included smaller workshops on poverty and gang warfare.

Chief Justice Paul Liacos of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court gave the opening remarks at yesterday's conference.

Liacos warned against the allure of easy answers to complex problems, attacking what he called the "flood of demagogues populating the airwaves of this country."

He said that efforts to add more police officers and prison beds will not stop juvenile violence.

"We should be trying to take children out of the courtroom and back where they belong--the classroom," Liacos said.

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., public service professor of jurisprudence at the Kennedy School, delivered the keynote address at last night's session.

In a heavily autobiographical speech, Higginbotham compared the civil rights movement to the struggle for peace in today's inner cities.

The conference will conclude tomorrow at the Boston College Law School, and will include a keynote address by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.