Articles

Children’s Exposure to Violence

In therapy sessions, children use art to describe their lives. “Children in a Violent Society,” Edited by Joy D. Osofsky, The Guilford Press.Each year in our country at least three…

Editors’ Question: Do We Fail Our Children?

A street sign bearing his name stands near the pavement where he was slain, a monument to the seven-year-old boy who started a revolution in our newsroom.On the morning of…

Parents’ Warning: Remember the Children.

One of the first books I read when I was getting to know Chicago was Alex Kotlowitz’s “There Are No Children Here,” a vivid portrayal of the desperate lives of…

Riding the Crime Wave

Why Words We Use Matter So Much

Mapping Children’s Roadway to Violence: The Early Years

“I went to Vermont and showed Ernie this story, as it appeared in the magazine. I started from the back and showed him the last picture with his mom. She’s…

Interview with Photographer Donna Ferrato

Melissa Ludtke: You’ve spent nearly two decades of your life documenting domestic violence and focusing to a great extent on the impact it has on children. Why do you think this…

The Superpredator Script

The funeral of a Boston youth. Photo by Stan Grossfeld.There is little doubt that television coverage contributes to the public hysteria about youth crime. In particular, local television news plays…

The Scandal: Coverage from the Heartland

After spending nearly 30 years encased in the self-absorption of Washington and international reporting as a diplomatic reporter for the Associated Press and foreign correspondent for The Los Angles Times,…

Youth and Race on Local TV News

Picture these scenes from two local TV news stories:A young pilot accepts the cheers of well-wishers as she completes a solo cross-country flight, becoming the youngest person ever to do…

Giving Readers Ways to Heal and to Help in Springfield, Oregon

Mourners at the memorial fence. Photo courtesy of The Register-Guard.May 21, 1998: It became The Day That Changed Everything. It changed everything we took for granted about what it means…