CRIME: When Kids Go Bad

America's juvenile-justice system is antiquated, inadequate and no longer able to cope with the violence wrought by children whom no one would call innocents

Frank Jackson knows something about violent crime. As head of the Dangerous Offenders Task Force in Wake County, North Carolina, he's been around his share. Even so, this tape makes him cringe. It's a 911 call made to police the night of July 27. A young woman is phoning for help from her apartment in Fuquay-Varina, about 15 miles from Raleigh. Just before the tape goes dead -- police believe the phone was ripped from the wall -- she can be heard screaming, "Don't harm my baby!" Jackson knows what happened next. Over the next several minutes she was beaten bloody...

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