The problems of young black males are challenging, complex, and chronic, perplexing educators, social scientists, and policymakers. While other groups, including women and recent immigrants, have made economic and social gains in the last two decades, black youth are now more likely than they were in 1960 to be unemployed, to be involved in the criminal justice system, to be unwed fathers, and to commit suicide. Young black males are a population at risk in an escalating cycle of deviance, dysfunction, and despair.

This comprehensive volume provides in-depth analyses of the deteriorating status of black youth, particularly black males. Experts from a variety of professions examine the implications and interrelationships of the multiple problems facing black youth and propose a comprehensive set of policies and programs that address those problems. They consider such important economic, sociocultural, and political issues as unemployment, teenage pregnancy, crime and delinquency substance abuse, and the conservative backlash against civil rights and social welfare programs.