Sexual harassment doesn't wait for the workplace. If you're a girl, boys nudging you or saying sexual things to you are just part of life. It doesn't feel like sexual harassment; it's just the way guys grow up. Phyllis Schlafly, longtime critic of women's expanded role outside the home, acknowledged this early form of harassment. Soon after the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, she said: "If a girl can survive high school, she ought to be able to deal with the office."

The increase in gang activity has been blamed on many factors, such as poverty, lack of parental guidance and the shortage of alternative activities for youths. But according to a counselor who has worked with teens for 20 years, societal attitudes may be as much to blame. "We are socialized to think that violence might well solve a problem," said Karla Taylor Temple, a consultant for the Ind