A troubling report last week by two criminal justice professors at Northeastern University demands a fresh look at crime prevention, particularly in the case of homicides by black teens in the United States.

James Alan Fox and Marc L. Swatt said that while murder rates across the country generally have declined since the early 1990s, the number of African-American males ages 14 through 17 who are involved in the worst of crimes has spiked. According to The New York Times, the number of white teens who committed murder in 2000 -- 539 -- barely grew in 2007 to 547. But the number of black teens involved in murder jumped 34 percent over the same period -- from 851 to 1,142.

Black males also accounted for a stiff increase in those who were most likely to have pulled the trigger in the murder of other young blacks.

Although twice as many black teenagers were killed in 1990 as in 2007, the numbers demand a vigorous response from elected leaders, particularly within affected communities.

The report argues that the rollback in federal funding for community policing and law enforcement programs that reduced homicides in the 1990s is partly responsible. Others blame the glorification of criminality, the prevalence in gangs and the rise in fatherless homes as bigger culprits.

The high percentage of young blacks who are illiterate and, thus, unemployable, means that proving one's manhood on the streets becomes a viable route to so-called respectability for far too many. Homicide is the inevitable result of hard feelings.

Liberals and conservatives can spout plenty of theories about why murder is more prevalent among black teens, but until policy-makers take an aggressive stand -- curbing guns, improving education, beefing up police and reducing poverty -- such violence will continue to plague the nation and its youth.