Liacos warned against the allure of easy answers to complex problems, attacking what he called the "flood of demagogues populating the airwaves of this country."
He said that efforts to add more police officers and prison beds will not stop juvenile violence.
"We should be trying to take children out of the courtroom and back where they belong--the classroom," Liacos said.
A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., public service professor of jurisprudence at the Kennedy School, delivered the keynote address at last night's session.
In a heavily autobiographical speech, Higginbotham compared the civil rights movement to the struggle for peace in today's inner cities.
The conference will conclude tomorrow at the Boston College Law School, and will include a keynote address by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.