Who Created The Juvenile 'Superpredators'?

Summary

In the 1990s, a wave of juvenile violent crime led to the term 'super predator' being used to describe remorseless young criminals. Criminologists like John DiIulio predicted a surge in youth violence, prompting lawmakers to enact harsher penalties for juvenile offenders. However, these predictions were incorrect, as crime rates began to decline. The 'super predator' narrative, once influential in shaping policy, was debunked, leading to a reevaluation of the criminal justice system's approach to youth offenders.

Takeaways

• 🔍 The 1990s were marked by a widespread fear of escalating youth violence, with the term 'super predator' being used to describe a new breed of remorseless juvenile criminals.
• 📈 Criminologists like John DiIulio predicted a significant rise in juvenile crime rates, leading to a moral panic and influencing lawmakers to enact tougher laws on juvenile offenders.
• 🔫 High-profile cases, such as the murder of 11-year-old Robert 'Yummy' Sandifer in Chicago, fueled public anxiety and media coverage, amplifying the perception of a youth crime wave.
• 🌐 The concept of 'super predators' was not limited to one region and became a national concern, affecting policy and public opinion across the United States.
• 📉 Contrary to predictions, juvenile crime rates did not increase as feared; instead, they began to decline, challenging the accuracy of earlier forecasts.
• 🏛️ The fear of 'super predators' led to policy changes, with almost 45 states enacting laws to crack down on juvenile offenders and treat them as adults in criminal courts.
• 📚 The term 'super predator' was popularized by academics and the media, but its origins can be traced back to an offhand comment by an inmate.
• 🔍 The role of race was highlighted in discussions about 'super predators,' with some suggesting that a significant proportion of these criminals would be young black males, which further complicated the issue.
• 🛑 The realization that the predictions about 'super predators' were incorrect led to a reevaluation of the policies and a call for more nuanced approaches to juvenile crime.
• 🏆 Some of the key figures who had warned about 'super predators,' like John DiIulio, later changed their views and advocated for changes in juvenile sentencing laws, contributing to a shift in the legal approach to youth crime.

Q & A

What was the term used to describe a new type of juvenile criminal that was believed to be on the rise in the 1990s?

The term used was 'super predator,' which referred to young juvenile criminals who were seen as impulsive and remorseless, capable of committing violent crimes without a second thought.

What was the prediction made by some social scientists and criminologists regarding juvenile crime in the 1990s?

They predicted a tidal wave of juvenile violent crime, with the worst yet to come, and the emergence of 'super predators' who would ravage the country.

What was the real-life incident that contributed to the fear of 'super predators'?

The murder of an 11-year-old gang member nicknamed 'Yummy' in Chicago by two members of his own gang, Craig and Derek Hardaway, contributed significantly to the fear of 'super predators.'

Who were the two brothers involved in the murder of Robert Sandifer, also known as 'Yummy'?

Craig Hardaway, who was 16 at the time, and his younger brother Derek Hardaway, who was 14, were involved in the murder.

What was the role of Derek Hardaway in the murder of Robert Sandifer?

Derek Hardaway waited in the car while his brother Craig pulled the trigger, making him an accomplice in the murder.

What was the reaction of lawmakers to the perceived rise in juvenile crime and the 'super predator' phenomenon?

Lawmakers cracked down on juvenile offenders, leading to the enactment of laws that made it easier to prosecute youth in adult criminal courts and increased penalties.

What was the term 'super predator' originally coined by?

The term 'super predator' was originally coined by an inmate and later popularized by academics like John DiIulio, who used it to describe a new breed of violent juvenile offenders.

What was the actual trend in juvenile crime rates during the period when 'super predators' were believed to be on the rise?

Contrary to the predictions, juvenile crime rates were already starting to decline, and by the late 1990s, they had significantly decreased.

What was the impact of the 'super predator' myth on the legal system and policies?

The myth led to the overhaul of the legal system, with many states enacting laws that cracked down on juvenile offenders and increased penalties, which are still being re-evaluated and adjusted today.

How did John DiIulio's views evolve after the 'super predator' predictions turned out to be incorrect?

John DiIulio lost faith in social science prediction and began to focus on religion and public affairs as a means to affect change, eventually working with White House administrations to implement faith-based initiatives.

What was the outcome of the Supreme Court case that John DiIulio and James Fox supported, which addressed the sentencing of juveniles?

The Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles convicted of murder amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, effectively banning such sentences.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 The Rise of 'Super Predators' Theory

The first paragraph discusses the 1990s' perception of escalating youth violence, with incidents like a jogger's murder in New York Central Park and a child's death in Los Angeles. This led to a societal fear, termed 'super predators,' referring to remorseless juvenile criminals. Criminologists like John DiIulio warned of an impending surge in such crimes, influencing lawmakers to impose harsher penalties on juvenile offenders. However, these predictions were later debunked as flawed.

05:01

🌐 The Societal Impact and Policy Changes

The second paragraph delves into the societal and legal repercussions of the 'super predator' narrative. It highlights how the term, initially used by an inmate, was adopted by academics and the media, leading to a moral panic. This panic resulted in legislative changes across 45 states, targeting juvenile offenders more severely. Despite these measures, juvenile crime rates began to decline, contradicting the predictions. The narrative also had racial undertones, often focusing on minority youth, which further complicated the issue.

10:03

🔄 Reevaluation and Policy Reversal

The final paragraph reflects on the reevaluation of the 'super predator' theory and its impact on policy. It discusses how experts like John DiIulio, who initially propagated the theory, later acknowledged its inaccuracies and shifted their focus towards faith-based initiatives for community improvement. The paragraph also touches on the legal changes that followed, including a Supreme Court case that ruled mandatory life sentences for juveniles as unconstitutional. The narrative concludes with a cautionary note on the limitations of demographic and criminological predictions in shaping public policy.

Keywords

💡Juvenile Violent Crime

Juvenile violent crime refers to acts of violence committed by individuals under the age of 18. In the video, this term is central as it discusses a perceived increase in youth violence in the 1990s, with examples such as a jogger murdered in New York and a little girl gunned down in Los Angeles. The narrative suggests a societal fear that youth violence was spiraling out of control.

💡Super Predators

The term 'super predators' was used in the 1990s to describe a perceived new breed of youth offenders who were exceptionally violent, remorseless, and impulsive. The video discusses how this term was popularized by criminologists and lawmakers, leading to a moral panic and harsher laws for juvenile offenders. The script mentions how these 'super predators' were expected to 'ravage the country,' but the predictions of a surge in youth violence proved to be incorrect.

💡Moral Panic

Moral panic refers to a widespread fear, often unfounded, that arises from the belief that certain groups or behaviors pose a threat to societal values and order. The video describes how the concept of 'super predators' led to a moral panic in the 1990s, resulting in lawmakers cracking down on juvenile offenders and implementing stricter laws, despite the fact that the predictions of rampant youth violence did not materialize.

💡Criminologist

A criminologist is a specialist who studies crime, its causes, and impacts on society. In the video, criminologists like James Fox and John DiIulio play a significant role in shaping public opinion and policy regarding juvenile crime. Their predictions and use of terms like 'super predators' influenced the public discourse and legal reforms of the era.

💡Youth Offenders

Youth offenders are individuals under the age of 18 who have committed crimes. The video discusses how the portrayal of youth offenders as 'super predators' led to a shift in how they were treated by the legal system, with many states enacting laws to prosecute and punish them more harshly, often in adult courts.

💡Robert Sandifer (Yummy)

Robert Sandifer, nicknamed 'Yummy,' was an 11-year-old gang member in Chicago whose murder became a symbol of the perceived rise in youth violence. His story is used in the video to illustrate the extreme cases that contributed to the narrative of 'super predators' and the public's fear of juvenile crime.

💡Craig and Derek Hardaway

Craig and Derek Hardaway are mentioned in the video as two brothers involved in the murder of Robert Sandifer. Their involvement in the crime and subsequent sentencing highlight the real-life consequences of the juvenile crime wave narrative and the legal system's response to it.

💡False Predictions

False predictions in the video refer to the incorrect forecasts made by experts like John DiIulio about a dramatic increase in youth violence. The term is used to critique the overestimation of the 'super predator' phenomenon, which led to significant policy changes that were later deemed unnecessary as crime rates did not rise as predicted.

💡Legal System Overhaul

The term 'legal system overhaul' in the video describes the extensive changes made to laws and policies regarding juvenile offenders in response to the 'super predator' narrative. These changes included making it easier to prosecute youth in adult courts and increasing penalties, which had long-term impacts on the justice system.

💡Mandatory Life Sentences

Mandatory life sentences refer to the automatic imposition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for certain crimes. The video discusses how the fear of 'super predators' led to policies supporting such sentences for juvenile offenders. However, later legal challenges, including a 2012 Supreme Court case, deemed mandatory life sentences for juveniles as cruel and unusual punishment.

Highlights

The 1990s were marked by a perceived rise in youth violence, leading to the term 'super predators' being used to describe remorseless juvenile criminals.

The fear of super predators led to a moral panic and influenced lawmakers to enact stricter laws on juvenile offenders.

The prediction of a surge in youth violence was based on data that suggested a significant increase in teenage homicide rates.

The term 'super predator' was coined by political scientist John DiIulio, who later admitted that the predictions were incorrect.

The murder of 11-year-old Robert 'Yummy' Sandifer in Chicago became a symbol of the perceived juvenile crime wave.

Criminologist James Fox used strong language to warn of a potential 'bloodbath' of teenage violence, contributing to the public's fear.

The concept of super predators was criticized for its racial implications and for demonizing certain groups of youth.

Despite predictions, juvenile crime rates began to decline in the late 1990s, contradicting the super predator theory.

The decline in juvenile crime has been attributed to factors such as a stronger economy and better policing.

John DiIulio's research and predictions were off by a significant margin, leading him to reevaluate his approach to social science.

The super predator myth led to the implementation of laws and policies that are still being reassessed today.

DiIulio and other academics later supported legal changes to reduce the severity of sentences for juvenile offenders.

The case of Derrick Hardaway, who was sentenced for his role in Sandifer's murder, exemplifies the impact of the laws influenced by the super predator myth.

John DiIulio shifted his focus to faith-based initiatives as a means to affect positive change in communities.

The super predator episode serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on flawed social science predictions in public policy.

Transcripts

a jogger murdered in New York Central

Park a little girl gunned down on her

family's car in Los Angeles a judge has

sentenced two boys for killing another

child who refused to steal candy for

them there's a tidal wave of juvenile

violent crime right over the horizon and

some who study it say the worst is yet

to come life in the 1990s was dominated

by a sense that youth violence was out

of control the future looked bleak to

explain why one word said it all super

predators some social scientists and

criminologists looked at the data and

saw doom they stepped out of their ivory

towers and into the public arena to

sound the alarm about a coming wave of

kids who are going to ravage the country

a super predator is a young juvenile

criminal who is so impulsive so

remorseless that he can kill rape Maine

without a giving a second thought

the prediction was terrifying and

lawmakers cracked down on juvenile

offenders this country went into a moral

panic over super predators but there was

one problem the calculations were wrong

they made it up

[Music]

along this stretch of grassy road one

night in early September 1994 when most

grade schoolers were getting ready for a

new school year a grisly murder took

place in Chicago the body of an 11 year

old gang member nicknamed yummy is found

beneath an underpass

police say Robert was murdered by two

members of his own gang 16 year old

Craig Hardaway and his younger brother

Derek Hardaway was 14 when he and his

brother drove to the underpass to kill

Robert Sandifer or yummy Sandefur

himself had shot and killed a teenage

girl before he was murdered

Derick waited in the car while Craig

pulled the trigger

I remember the night with these took

place he got a page from a guy named

Kenny I'm not actually sure what he said

to my brother but it was to kill Robert

Derek and his brother belonged to

Chicago's black disciples gang I've

always told to do certain things even if

I didn't want to do it it was either do

when I'm being told I'll have it done at

me

even in an era of violent teen killers

Roberts and AFER's murder was big news

the story scared people says

criminologist Barry Chris Berg this was

no longer a Chicago story this was a

story that no matter where you lived you

turned on the evening news and you would

hear about this case by now nearly all

of us know the story of Robert Sandefur

there was a sense that the country writ

large was going to hell in a handbasket

no one had a clear idea of what to do

political scientist John Dee Leo taught

at Princeton University and had done

extensive research in prisons studying

the criminal justice system from 1984 to

1994 when Sandefur was killed

teenage homicide rates had more than

doubled dealio looked at studies that

estimated that by 2000 there would be a

million more teens between the ages of

14 and 7

and he predicted crime rates would

snowball even more you'd have a doubling

or tripling in the rate of youth

violence in the in the time between the

mid 90s and up to through mid 2000s

perhaps most troubling to dealio was

what he saw as an indication that the

small percentage of kids who commit the

most violent crimes would be much more

destructive than the generation before

them studies found that essentially 6%

of every male youth cohort was

responsible for about 50% of all the

violent crimes committed by that cohort

that small fraction of people is going

to be able to wreak incredible havoc

delia wasn't the only one predicting a

surge in crime by the year 2005 we may

very well have a bloodbath of teenage

violence Northeastern University

criminologist James Fox says his choice

of words was deliberate

I did sound an alarm and I did use some

rather strong language in terms of what

might happen if we didn't react quickly

Fox and Elio felt compelled to call

attention to this perceived problem and

rhetoric proved the most powerful arrow

in their quiver dealio an Ivy League

academic from South Philadelphia wrote

this article for the Weekly Standard in

1995 the term super predator originated

from an inmate who said as almost a

throwaway line we said oh these kids

they're they're stone-cold predators and

like a match to a flame the word caught

on super predator predator predators

super predator linguist Ben Zimmer

studies language and culture when you

use a word like predator it is loaded

with certain assumptions about the way

that an animal hunts another animal it's

said to call someone a super predator

really amps that up even more we're

talking about a group of kids who are

growing up essentially fatherless

godless and jobless do you leo says that

he wasn't pointing to any particular

racial group as being the most

potentially violent but in 1996 he wrote

that as many as half of these juvenile

super predators could be

young black males race was the central

issue that as the number of minority

children principally african-american

but also Latino children that to the

extent that that number was increasing

in the society with them would come a

big crime increase what's required in

moral panic is the identification of a

particular group of people who are

demonized in some way when you describe

another group as godless you can do

anything to them lawmakers seize the

moment to spur on the overhaul of a

legal system they considered two lakhs

kids at once stole hubcaps now rape and

murder no fear of punishment experts

call them super predators there are no

violent offenses that are juvenile you

rape somebody you're an adult you shoot

somebody you're an adult virtually every

state almost 45 states enacted laws

cracking down on juvenile offenders

making it easier for prosecute youth in

adult criminal courts increased

penalties but at the same time the laws

were being enacted juvenile crime rates

were already starting to show a

surprising trend female crime rates have

been plummeting during this period of

time in the wake of this panic the drop

in juvenile crime has been attributed to

many things a stronger economy better

policing a decline in crack cocaine use

but dealios research had not foreseen

any of these trends we were at on the

precipice of being able to explain and

predict all kinds of things poverty

trends crime trends and so forth none of

that work

none of those predictions in any of

those fields have borne fruit by the

late 1990s after a steady decline in

juvenile crime do you Leo could see just

how mistaken he was this super predator

was a no-show the predictions were off

by a factor of four it had double that

was supposed to double again instead it

was halved

right and so that's about as far off as

you wanted to possibly get

the super-predator idea was wrong once

it was out there though it was out there

there was no real need in the experience

was a turning-point dealio increasingly

began to think about religion and public

affairs as the best way to affect change

I lost faith in social science

prediction at about the same time that I

gained faith of a traditional religious

con but Chris Berg says the problem

wasn't with social science but that

deullyeo not only misinterpreted the

data but what it meant there was a myth

and unfortunately it was a myth that

some academics jumped on to the fear

over the super-predator led to a

tremendous number of laws and policies

that were just now recovering from in a

public move dealio and Fox both signed a

friend of the court document in a 2012

Supreme Court case that would ban

mandatory life sentences for juveniles

convicted of murder

I signed the amicus brief I thought that

although the arguments were a bit

one-sided it came to the right

conclusion and so I signed it it's

because at the end of the day that's

what's going to matter most what did you

do and why did you do it and did it make

a positive difference do you Leo's side

prevailed automatic mandatory life

sentences the justices said amount to

cruel and unusual punishment Derick

Hardaway was sentenced to 45 years for

his role as an accomplice in the murder

of Robert Sandiford he will be up for

parole in 2016

I guess senses

being told you got to do more time in

prison than you actually live at that

time that's hard especially for a 16

year old herself

John do you Leo has worked with three

White House administrations to try to

implement faith-based initiatives in

needy communities but he says he's out

of the business of forecasting

demography is not fade and criminology

is not pure science in that lesson I

think this this episode from 20 years

ago and I think many many other things

in public policy mean that we should

carve that in stone and put it above

every every research institution and

every foundation

[Music]

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