SUPERPREDATORS OR JUST NAUGHTY? By Steven A. Drizin. Steven A. Drizin is an associate clinical professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law, and an attorney in the Legal Clinic's Children and Family Justice Center "Leave No Child Behind" is the mantra President-elect George W. Bush borrowed from the venerable Children's Defense Fund to package his new brand of compassionate conservatism. But Bush's nomination of Sen. John Ashcroft as U.S. attorney general has put a damper on hopes that the ugly rhetoric used to describe America's youth during the past seven years will come to an end. Ashcroft is noteworthy for, among the other reasons playing out so dramatically in the news, his inflammatory rhetoric about juvenile crime. He embraced Princeton University political science professor John J. DiIulio, who coined the word "superpredators" to describe a "new breed" of juvenile delinquents, a more "coldblooded" and "remorseless" band of youths who would wreak mayhem in the coming years as America's youth population soared. DiIulio became the darling of conservatives. His apocalyptic vision of a "coming Armageddon" was music to its ears, coinciding with the party's decision to make cracking down on juvenile crime a core tenet of its "Contract With America" and its crime-control agenda. ;Ashcroft hailed DiIulio as a messiah of sorts, bringing him to breakfast meetings on Capitol Hill and recruiting him to testify before congressional committees. Like a true disciple, he soon began to use DiIulio's rhetoric in his speeches. In the wake of isolated incidents like the one at Columbine High School, Ashcroft fanned public hysteria by referring to today's youths as "killers in the classroom" and "predators on the playground" and attacked the juvenile justice system as an outdated system which "hugs the juvenile terrorist." In 1997, he exclaimed that juveniles were today's "typical murderers, robbers and rapists and drug dealers," despite the fact adults accounted for 83 percent of violent crimes and were five times more likely than juveniles to be arrested for such crimes. Citing DiIulio's predictions, Ashcroft sponsored crime bills that conditioned the receipt of federal financial support to states on their willingness to try juveniles age 14 and older as adults and to weaken current protections requiring that juveniles be separated from adults in jails. Some of these positions were even too extreme for DiIulio. He has since criticized congressional leaders for distorting his message, claiming that he never intended for the federal government to assume so large a role in criminal-justice policy. He also has corrected the misperception spread by Ashcroft and others that most juvenile criminals are superpredators and has consistently opposed the solution of warehousing juvenile offenders in adult jails and prisons. The dire predictions of Ashcroft and DiIulio never came to pass. In the nearly six years since DiIulio first talked of superpredators, the number of homicides committed by juveniles has dropped 68 percent. In a report released this week, the U.S. surgeon general called the superpredator theory a "myth," stating "there is no evidence that the young people involved in violence during the peak years of the early 1990s were more frequent or more vicious offenders than youth in earlier years." Unfortunately, this myth has had amazing staying power. Although juvenile crime is at a 25-year low, recent polls show that 62 percent of the general public still believes it is on the rise. It is this gap between truth and myth that has led to a doubling of youths in adult jails and exponential increases in the number of youths tried as adults. As long as the public continues to perceive our young people as budding sociopaths, these punitive and misguided policies will persist. If Ashcroft is confirmed as U.S. attorney general, one of his first tasks should be to come clean with the American people about today's youth. From his new bully pulpit, he can atone for his past transgressions and do much to allay the public's anxiety about teenagers. By speaking in more measured tones, he can bridge the very gulf that he helped create with his alarmist rhetoric. He can help steer the new administration to fulfill the promise of America's youth while honoring its pledge to leave no child behind.