Commit sucide

In 1988, faced with the highest murder rate in the nation, Washington, D.C., issued an in-depth report on the problem: Homicide in the District of Columbia. Three years later, the city issued a follow-up report as part of an ongoing effort to understand the factors that contribute to the proliferation of homicide.
The 1991 Homicide Report included a chapter based on interviews with youths incarcerated for homicide in the District. The interviews were conducted by Claire M. Johnson, then-director of the District of Columbia Criminal Justice Research Center, who wrote and edited the overall report.
The interviews were designed to gain insight into how the youths perceive themselves and their crimes. Johnson, now a senior associate at the Institute for Law and Justice in Alexandria, Va., has continued to follow the progress of the youths she interviewed at Oak Hill Youth Center, the city's secure detention facility for juveniles.
The following excerpts, in Johnson's words, are taken fr...