Youths in Crisis (Editorial‪)‬

In the past few decades, there has been a silent crisis for youths exploding in both the United States and around the globe. Although children have traditionally been our hope for the future, we are seeing the gradual diminishment, and in some cases destruction, of institutions and organizations that care for our children. According to Giroux (2003), "A seismic change has taken place in which youth are now being framed as a generation of shiftless, riff-raff, thugs, or potential terrorists and hence, a threat to public life" (p. 175). Rather than helping youths navigate the turbulence they experience growing up in the current social order, society quickly labels young people as undesirable troublemakers and perceives them as disposable commodities. In an increasingly neoliberal, market-driven, global economy, children are viewed as unproductive, infantile, and dependent. However, when youths threaten the adult world, they are punished as adults with sentences commensurate with the adult criminal justice system. By denying their value to society, it is possible to negate their humanity and relegate them to a minor footnote in terms of social priorities. From a global perspective, there are some impressive examples of children in crisis. It is estimated that approximately 1 billion children are currently living in poverty and lack the basic necessities of life to develop and survive. One in three children has inadequate shelter, one in five has no access to safe drinking water, and one in seven has a total lack of basic health care services (UNICEF, 2004). More than 120 million children of primary age do not attend school or have access to an educational institution. In terms of violence and war, millions of children are ravaged and killed by armed conflict. In Iraq, for example, since 1991, over 500,000 children have died as the indirect result of war due to malnutrition and treatable diseases. Finally, the 2009 UNAIDS report pointed to HIV/AIDS as one of the leading causes of death among children worldwide. According to this report ending in 2008, over 2.1 million children are currently living with AIDS, and 14 million children in Africa have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (UNICEF, 2004).