Editorial: Letter from the Editors

This issue our guest editors are close to home. Wilhelm Heitmeyer and Steven F. Messner, both members of our own Board of Editors, have assembled a focus section examining the question of “Youth at Risk.” Their collection certainly lives up to our aspiration to be truly interdisciplinary and international. The methods applied in the reported research range from interview-based studies through empirical number-crunching to laboratory experiments (the latter a first for this journal); the geographical scope spans from Argentina through Central America and Europe to Africa. The youth at risk here are in conflict with the police, with each other, with societies that fear them, with societies that ignore their needs. Our systematically eclectic approach continues outside the focus section too, with contributions on the theory of violence, female fighters in Africa, and spousal violence in Pakistan.