Youth violence garners considerable attention in the media as well as in public policy debates. In spite of this interest and attention to youth violence, stereotypes fueled by misperceptions about the epidemiology of youth violence often drive these discussions. Urban minority youth, especially males, are typically presented as the “dark stranger” responsible for much of this violence. Criminal justice and juvenile justice data tend to reinforce this perspective. In this article, the authors call into question the extent to which violent juvenile offending can be characterized as an urban minority male problem. A multisite sample of middle school students was used to examine the distribution of violent offending by sex, race/ethnicity, and community of residence.
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