Framing Youth: Ten Myths About the Next Generation

Framing Youth: Ten Myths About the Next Generation, Mike Males, Common Courage Press, 1999

To read the mainstream media, a person would think that America's teenagers are reckless maniacs, getting drunk, stoned, pregnant or murdered by the thousands. Males, who has spent years writing about, and actually talking to, youth, gives a very different answer.

A teen's home situation is a much more reliable indicator of whether or not they will smoke, drink or abuse drugs than peer pressure or pop culture. In 1996, when teens were supposed to be abusing drugs in record numbers, about 100,000 adults were taken to hospital emergency rooms for heroin or cocaine emergencies; in the same year, only 1,000 teens made such a trip. Little-discussed aspects of the teen pregnancy "epidemic" are past sexual abuse of the girl, usually by a family member, and the large number of fathers that are over 20 years old. The media would seemingly rather reprint law enforcement press releases than actually analyze crime statistics. They also tend to lie about crime trends, even when they are going in the proper direction; not stretching the truth, or differing interpretations, but it is closer to saying that black is white and up is down.

This is an eloquent and fascinating look at how badly young people are treated by their elders, filled to overflowing with numbers, graphs and statistics. It is highly recommended.