Youth Violence

As part of this weekend's Viva Brazil! celebration, director Mari Gardner's Violence Next Door: Growing Up in the Favela and the Hood, will be shown at 7:30 tonight at the Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave., in the old Patterson Theater. The film includes footage shot by youngsters from Baltimore and Rio de Janeiro, showing their worlds and trying to dispel some of the stereotypes they live under. Showtime is 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $7, $5 for alliance members and students. Information: 410-276-1651 or creativealliance.

The majority of children witness 100,000 acts of violence before they leave elementary school, according to a recent study. Children are exposed to violence from myriad sources including movies and video games. The impact on children's minds hasn't been determined, but we might be seeing the results in teen violence on the streets and in the schools. But when police were called to quell fights at four Anne Arundel County high schools during the 2006-2007 school year, the Anne Arundel County government, the county public schools and Anne Arundel Community College decided to collaborate to come up with creative solutions to help families and communities.

Juvenile justice advocates said yesterday they are not "placated" by recent reforms announced by Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration, pointing to a spike this year in violence at Maryland's youth detention facilities as evidence of a need for sweeping change. In a report earlier this month by the juvenile justice monitoring unit of the state attorney general, director Marlana Valdez said "aggressive or violent incidents increased at an alarming rate" between January and March at several detention facilities operated by the state.

As police sift through the facts of last weekend's deadly brawl on a football field at a Howard County high school, one contributing factor has emerged: underage drinking. Some of the participants in the fight, in which an 18-year-old was killed by a blow to the head with an aluminum baseball bat, appeared to be intoxicated. A party at a house near the football field was raided that night, and police issued 15 citations for underage drinking. Experts say alcohol and youth violence often intersect, sometimes with tragic results.

See Jane Hit: Why Girls Are Growing More Violent and What Can Be Done About It James Garbarino Penguin / 304 pages / $25.95 In Girl World, the primeval land of catty, jealous adolescent females that was described in such colorful and alarming detail by Rosalind Wiseman in Queen Bees and Wannabes and Rachel Simmons in Odd Girl Out, baby boomer parents found their worst nightmares about their daughters confirmed. The sugar-and-spice darlings might still look pretty in pink, but they could be just as power-hungry and aggressive as their combative, in-your-face brothers.

Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, Baltimore's high-profile and innovative health commissioner for more than a decade, will tell his staff today that he is resigning his post at the end of next week to run for Maryland's 3rd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Beilenson - known for bringing to the city an array of initiatives ranging from needle exchange to interventions to combat youth violence - said last night that he will officially announce June 22 that he is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin.

Almost 200 people from public and private agencies attended the Carroll County Response to Family Violence Conference, a daylong program of speakers and workshops on child abuse and youth violence at Carroll Community College. The program Friday was organized by the county's Local Management Board and the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council for public and private organizations, with a $37,000 state grant from the Office of Crime Control and Prevention. Clifton Files, a lawyer and social worker with Family and Children's Services of Baltimore County, closed the session by recounting the effect on his family after his father murdered his mother when Files was a 7-year-old boy in a small Indiana town.

Commissioners OK bonds to help company expand The Carroll County commissioners authorized yesterday $10 million in industrial revenue bonds to help Shelter Systems Limited acquire land and expand its company. The bonds will help Shelter Systems, a manufacturer of floor and roof trusses, buy 25 acres at Meadow Branch Industrial Park in Westminster. The company plans to construct a 130,000-square-foot building on the property. Federal revenue bonds provide the funding, and the county serves as a conduit for the funds.

The little girl in pigtails is sitting on her bed, talking about the day she killed her friend during a fight on a Baltimore street corner. "From what I remember, I stabbed her once," 14-year-old Shanae says matter-of-factly, her big brown eyes glancing up at the camera. "But from the autopsy reports, I stabbed her three times." This scene, from the opening of the documentary Girlhood, is how viewers first meet Shanae, the baby-faced Baltimore girl locked up for murder at age 12. A counselor has told Shanae that she seemed "quite happy" for a person who'd committed such a serious crime.

City police, Johns Hopkins health experts and community leaders are teaming up to help diminish the impact of violence on juveniles who often get a harsh look at the city's uglier side. Through the Child Development Community Policing program, or CDCP, officials are stepping in to help children when they've been victims of, or witnesses to, violence. The program, started here in 1996, aims to help people deal with the emotions and stress that violence brings, said Dr. Laura Seidel, clinical director of the program.