The first article in the section of the journal dedicated to the topic of preventing violence among youth provides a broad philosophical context for understanding youth violence by posing the question of why good people do evil things, and suggests that the roots of this situation lie in the social and psychological domains of the human condition. The next three articles represent efforts to document and identify the consequences of exposure to youth violence. The final three articles in this section highlight the need for effective interventions and enlightened public policies in the effort to deal with the problem of youth violence. One article summarizes research on the risks of exposure to television violence and suggests that the mass media can be used, instead, to teach pro-social behaviors. The articles describe several successful violence prevention programs, and suggest additional innovative approaches, including policy strategies that limit access to guns and that also change attitudes towards violence. References