Our society incorporates violence into nearly every aspect of its existence. We pick up the newspaper or turn on the television and find the details of the latest violent crimes. Very often these crimes involve children. Recently two boys killed a girl for her bicycle. They valued a material object more than a human life. At some point in their lives they learned that it was okay to harm another individual. Nobody provoked them and they didn't defend themselves. They acted out of pure selfishness. Unfortunately this scenario has become all too familiar in recent years. Over the past two decades, violent crime among young people aged 14 to 17 has increased dramatically. Between 1983 and 1992, juvenile arrests increased 117 percent (U.S. Department of Justice, 12). This suggests an increase in the growing involvement of young people in violent crime. To alleviate this problem nationally and globally, we must adapt the use of nonviolence to our culture. We can do this by understanding the core principles of nonviolence that our peace leaders have practiced and developing strategies to incorporate them into our daily lives. The type of nonviolence most familiar in our time is that of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists practiced it in the 1960s. King preached that the oppressed should never sink to the level of the oppressors and result in physical violence. King believed in nonviolent protests such as marches, sit-ins, and freedom rides. He felt that "if repressed emotions do not emerge in these nonviolent ways, they will emerge in threatening expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a historical fact" (King, preface). He considered these actions... half of the document... 3/fte (8 October 1998). King, Martin Luther Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994.Knickerbocker, Brad. Christian Science Monitor. Item number: 9503070723. (January 1, 1995). http://www.epnet.com/bin/epwsatch/submit=text/session=IyprjHN/st=26/qn=2/fte (8 October 1998).Mother Teresa. “Quotes to inspire you: Peace.” 1998. http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_peace.html (20 September 1998). “Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE).” Mavia Newsline: Fall 1997. 1997, 1998. http://www.mavia.org.aut97/aut 97_newsletter.htm (September 20, 1998). United States Department of Justice. Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Guide for the implementation of the global strategy for serious, violent and chronic juvenile offenders. Ed. James C. Howell. Washington: Group Policy, 1995.