Youth Violence Facts
Youth violence is a widespread problem in the United States. Consider the following statistics:
- About 9% of murders in the U.S. were committed by youth under 18 in 2000. An estimated 1561 youth under the age of 18 were arrested for homicide in 2000.[1]
- Youth under 18 accounted for about 15% of violent crime arrests in 2001.[2]
- One national survey found that for every teen arrested, at least 10 were engaged in violence that could have seriously injured or killed another person.[3]
- About 1 in 3 high-school students say they have been in a physical fight in the past year, and about 1 in 8 of those students required medical attention for their injuries.[4]
- More than 1 in 6 students in grades 6 to 10 say they are bullied sometimes, and more than 1 in 12 say they are bullied once a week or more.[5]
- Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers - In 2000, 1921 young people ages 10 to 19 died by suicide in the United States.[6]
- About 1 in 11 high-school students say they have made a suicide attempt in the past year.[7]
Although youth violence has always been a problem in the United States, the number of deaths and serious injuries increased dramatically during the late 1980's and early 1990's, as more and more youth began to carry weapons.
Since then, however, the tide has begun to turn. Between 1992 and 2001, juvenile arrests on weapons charges dropped 35%; the juvenile arrest rate for murder fell 62%, dropping to its lowest level in more than two decades; and the juvenile arrest rate for violent crimes dropped by 21%.[8] Clearly, considerable progress has been made, but youth violence does still remain a serious problem in the United States.
Risk and Protective Factors
Researchers have identified a number of factors that increase children and youths' risk for becoming involved in serious violence during adolescence. For children under 13, the most important factors include: early involvement in serious criminal behavior, early substance use, being male, a history of physical aggression toward others, low parent education levels or poverty, and parent involvement in illegal activities.[9]
Once a child becomes an adolescent, different factors predict involvement in serious violence. Friends and peers are much more important for adolescents, and friendships with antisocial or delinquent peers, membership in a gang, and involvement in other criminal activity are the most important predictors of serious violence for adolescents.[10]
A number of protective factors for youth violence have been proposed and researched, but at this point, only two have been found to buffer the risk of serious violence - an intolerant attitude toward deviance and commitment to school. As further research is conducted, it is likely that other protective factors will be identified.[11]
Youth Violence and High-Risk Behaviors
Serious violence is often accompanied by a wide range of other problem behaviors, including property crimes, substance use, weapons carrying, dropping out of school, early sexual activity, and reckless driving.
However, not all violent youths or even all youths involved in chronic violence have co-occurring problems. Moreover, not all youths with problem behaviors are seriously violent. The fact that serious violence and problem behaviors tend to occur together does not necessarily mean that one causes the other.[12]
Onset and Duration of Violent Behavior
Two general onset trajectories emerge from longitudinal studies of youth violence - an early-onset trajectory that begins before puberty and a late-onset trajectory that begins in adolescence.
Youth in the early-onset trajectory generally commit more crimes, and more serious crimes, for a longer time. These young people exhibit a pattern of escalating violence through childhood and adolescence, and frequently into adulthood.
Most youths who become violent, however, begin in adolescence. Their late-onset offending is usually limited to a short period, peaking by about age 16 and dropping off dramatically by age 20. They typically show few signs in childhood that they will become violent later on. [13]
As youth transition from adolescence into adulthood, most cease their involvement in serious violence. Only about 20 percent of serious violent offenders continue their violent careers into their twenties. Preliminary analyses suggest that cessation of offending is related to having a stable job and a stable intimate relationship. [14]
- Fox, J.A., Zawitz, M.W. (2002). Homicide Trends in the United States. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (2002). Crime in the United States, 2001. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Table 41.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General. Executive Summary, p. vii. Comparison of data from the Monitoring the Future Study from the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2002). Youth risk behavior surveillance - United States, 2001. In: CDC Surveillance Summaries, June 28, 2002. MMWR, 51(SS-4), p. 5.
- Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth: Prevalence and Association With Psychosocial Adjustment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16), 2094-2100.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data
Source: NCHS National Vital Statistics System for numbers of deaths, U.S. Bureau
of Census for population estimates. Statistics compiled using WISQARS
TM produced by the Office of Statistics and Programming, NCIPC, CDC. - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2002). Youth risk behavior surveillance - United States, 2001. In: CDC Surveillance Summaries, June 28, 2002. MMWR, 51(SS-4), p. 6.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (2002). Crime in the United States, 2001. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Table 32
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, pp. 63-67.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, pp. 67-71.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, pp. 74-77.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, p. 49.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, pp. 42-43.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, pp. 51-52.