We think of violent children as mysteries and shocking anomalies. But as yet another schoolground tragedy confronts us, the realization of a chilling trend is becoming unavoidable.

Juvenile crime has quadrupled over the past 25 years. In the past decade alone, weapons offenses for children has doubled, suicide rates have tripled, and assaults by teens have increased 64%. Every four minutes a child is arrested for a violent crime. While males aged 14-24 make up only 8% of the American population, they commit over 50% of the murders. And 80% of these murders are committed with guns.

If the current trend continues, one out of every twenty babies born this year will end up in state or federal prison.

Yet violent children are not the problem. Violent children are a symptom. If we want to successfully address this symptom, we are going to have to face some facts about the roots of violence. The facts don't point to simple solutions. They don't scapegoat certain groups, families, or races. They don't even scapegoat poverty.

Instead, we have to look in two places. One is the modern world of science, the world of brain scans, neurotransmitters, hormones, and fetal development. The other is the world of our babies. The world of the very earliest interactions between parents and infants. A world defined by the assumption that babies are basically the property of their biological parents, and that others should remain at a respectable distance.

In the world of modern science we can now literally watch our brains react via PET scans. Printed out in vivid reds and blues, we have proof that not everyone's brain reacts the same under stress. And in the words of Baylor University researcher Dr. Bruce Perry, it's not the finger that pulls the trigger, it's the brain.

We have clear evidence that the brains of violent children operate differently than the brains of children who are able to control emotions and inhibit impulses. And these differences apparently originate in the first 33 months of life. Nine of those during pregnancy and the first two years of infancy.

We assume babies are in their own world, primarily busy developing muscle control. Not so. Mainly they are developing their brains. Their hard wiring is not complete by birth. It depends on stimulation received by the baby during critical periods after birth. Absent soothing and responsive stimulation, or in the presence of stressful stimulation precious connections aren't made.

This has everything to do with later violence. Think of our brains as having two parts. Our modern brain and our primitive brain. Our primitive brain, including our brainstem, midbrain, and limbic system, controls basic functions. Breathing, sleeping, heart rate, emotions, and impulses. Our modern brain is our cortex, housed in the front of our brains, and serving to help us reason, plan and think. Each of these parts is responsive to the environment, especially as a fetus and baby.

In a violent child, the limbic system has too much power. Impulses rule. Aggression is acted out, not talked out. Rage, jealousy, and fear erupt out of proportion to the situation. The cortex is not doing its job of emotional control.

This is not conjecture. We have plenty of research by now. Anything that increases the reactivity of the limbic system or decreases the moderating influence of the cortex will increase aggression, impulsivity, and the capacity to display violence.

Yet our programs to curb violence are not directed at this basic fact. Instead, we spend more on prisons, create well-meaning distraction programs such as midnight basketball for at-risk teens, and increase funding to already failing social service programs.

All these approaches are after the fact. By the time anyone participates in them their brain is already programmed in a way that will result in acting out or inhibiting aggression.

If we want to reduce the risk of our children becoming violence, we have to start much earlier. We have to reduce the number of children with risk factors. We have to direct efforts to the root causes. And that takes us to the nursery and even earlier.

First we have to look at who is making babies. We know the risk factors for glitches in fetal brain development. Pregnant women who smoke, drink, or use other drugs. (Interestingly, we've targeted crack babies, who are much fewer in number than babies born with fetal alcohol effects.) Even sperm can be damaged by these same habits.

Depressed or chronically stressed women. The 40% of American women who are pregnant unintentionally. Pregnant teens. Pregnant women with low intelligence.

At birth, risk factors for malfunction of the cortex include delivery complications, birth trauma, prematurity, and low birth weight. In the first two years, nutritional deficiencies, accidents, and particularly head injuries are risk factors.

Temperament differences at birth are also predictive. Babies who show high distractibility, high irritability, low responsiveness to caregiver feedback, and marked distress in reaction to being dressed or diapered all predict later aggression.

Many of these factors overlap with other general and familial conditions. Multiple changes in caregivers, lack of consistent responsiveness to the baby, or neglect or abuse are high risk factors. An overwhelmed baby has few options. They cannot fight or flee as adults can. Boy babies tend to hyperarouse and girl babies tend to dissociate or tune out. Hyperarousal is basically the limbic system taking control. Neural pathways are being laid down in the critical first 24 months of life. If the pathways are of limbic system overreaction, they stay that way. Hyperaroused boys often end up with attention deficit disorder and conduct disorder.

Research shows that if two or more of these biological risk factors are present plus a familial or environmental situation of chronic severe stress is present, the baby will grow into a child predisposed to violence.

The statistics are compelling. One study of homicidal children found 84% had been diagnosed with a conduct disorder, over 50% had Attention Deficit Disorder, 96% were from chaotic families which included either abandonment, chronic fighting, promiscuity, drug abuse, or parental incarceration, 90% had been abused, and a full 100% had chronic, serious school problems.

One out of three victims of child abuse are babies under one year of age. It is estimated that 22% of children with learning disabilities got them from severe abuse. A tragic 95% of head injuries in children are caused by abusive adults. Abused infants and children cannot be restored to emotional health easily. Their trust, and even their basic bodily functions are altered. One study found that the resting heart rate of abused children was between 100-140 beats per minute. The normal rate for children that age is 84.

Environmental factors add more risk. Living below the community economic norm, living with parents who model violent solutions to problems, or who model the use of alcohol or drugs to deal with problems, can be final straws for vulnerable children.

The easy availability of guns can spell disaster for at risk children. These kids can't rely on their brain's cortex to inhibit aggressive impulses. Any parent who gives a gun to a child who has demonstrated aggression, impulsivity, or neurological glitches is sadly misguided. The very presence of guns in the household of such children is highly risky.

Eighty percent of murders committed by children are with guns.

These are also the children most at risk from violent television, movies, and video games. I could personally easily argue against these pastimes for any of our children, but violent input into already vulnerable brains seems inexcusable.

Most parents do their best and their best includes tremendous hard work and sacrifice. What needs to be added is education about these prenatal and early infancy risk factors. Noticing problems even at preschool may be too late. Certainly putting off problems until a crisis hits is dangerous not only to your children, but to others.

Hospitals can screen for early signs of either neurological problems in the newborn or problems in the parent-child connection. Nurses often report being able to tell which babies are headed for trouble. At-home visitation, especially for at risk infants shows promise. Tax breaks for intensive pregnancy planning and infant parenting classes may be money well spent.

What we are doing now is not working. While 10-12 % of American boys are now on Ritalin for attention and impulse problems, they are seldom referred for the therapy needed to go along with the medication. Children who end up in juvenile institutions are not being helped there. Over 3/4ís of them end up rearrested within months of release.

Out of control kids, those being ruled by their primitive limbic systems are treated as though they were the same as kids with intact cortical functioning. We try to reason with them, but they are immune to logic, do not learn from punishment, and fail in a regular classrooms.

Violent children do not arise out of thin air. They do not suddenly snap. The signs are there if we as a society choose to look for them. Most biological risk factors are preventable. Obviously, child abuse is preventable. Almost all violent children send us signs. As infants and young children the signs are cries for help. As they grow older, the signs are ominously shifting to warnings and threats.

Let's hope we take them seriously.