VIOLENCE

Violence in the United States is widely viewed, by policymakers and researchers, as an epidemic and a major public-health problem. Particularly in the wake of high-profile school shootings that occurred in the late twentieth century, the American public has shown increasing concern about violent adolescents and the harmful effects that exposure to violence has on children and adolescents. While high rates of lethal violence warrant attention, many more youth are exposed to chronic, nonlethal violence and aggression in their homes, schools, and communities. Violence rates generally follow economic trends and affect all youth, although poor, urban, and minority youth are most at risk. This article provides an overview of the incidence of violence, including suicide and homicide, among children and adolescents and its effects on them, and briefly reviews the effectiveness of intervention and prevention approaches to mitigating violence and its effects.

The Incidence of Violence Affecting Youth

After their peak in 1993, national crime rates, including juvenile crime rates, declined. Between 1993 and 1997 victimization from serious violent crime dropped 25 percent for adults, from 4.2 to 3 million, and 33 percent for youth, from 1,230,000 to 830,000. While this decline is encouraging, overall rates of violent crime remain alarmingly high. For instance, victimization rates for youth under age fifteen in the United States dramatically exceed those in other industrialized countries, particularly when firearm use is considered. Juveniles are twice as likely as adults to be victims of serious violent crimes and three times as likely to be victims of simple assault.

Juvenile Homicide

Juvenile homicide is the most severe and disturbing type of youth violence. The distinction between homicide and nonlethal violence may be somewhat arbitrary, however, because similar actions can produce either lethal or nonlethal outcomes.

Juvenile Victims

At the beginning of the twenty-first century in the United States, homicide was the second leading cause of death for youths age ten to nineteen. Homicide is the first leading cause of death for black male youths. Of all murder victims in 1997 (18,200 victims or 7 per 100,000 people living in the U.S.), 11 percent (2,100 victims or 3 per 100,00 juveniles living in the U.S.) were under age eighteen. Most juvenile victims (71%) were male black youths. Although black youth comprised only about 15 percent of the juvenile population, they were five times as likely as white youth to be homicide victims in 1997. This is a decrease from 1993 when the ratio was seven to one, but the ratio remained high compared with the early 1980s. Juvenile homicide rates for Latino youth appear comparable to those for blacks; for Native Americans the rates of violent victimization are the highest.

Despite some published reports, students are safer at school than elsewhere. Compared with non-urban youth, urban youth are at greater risk for violent victimization, including homicide, in any setting. All children are at highest risk for victimization in the hours immediately after school.

Firearm use among youths is a serious issue. Homicides of youths age fifteen to seventeen are more likely to involve firearms than for any other age group. In this age group, 86 percent of all homicides involved firearms. Rates of firearm-related juvenile homicide increased dramatically between 1987 and 1993, from about 800 victims (41% of juvenile homicides) to about 1,700 victims (61% of juvenile homicides), and showed some decline along with other crime statistics to about 1,200 victims (56% of juvenile homicides) in 1997. However, the rates of juvenile homicide with a firearm have continued to exceed those where no firearm was used.

Juvenile Perpetrators

Patterns of violent crime committed by youths generally mirror those for the general population. Juveniles committed approximately 12 percent of all murders in 1997. It is estimated that in 1997, of 18,200 murders committed, about 2,300 murders were committed by juveniles. Unlike murders committed by adults, 44 percent of all murders by juveniles involved more than one perpetrator (often including a young adult). Ninety-three percent of juvenile murderers were male, 56 percent were black, and 88 percent were between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. Juvenile murderers are more concentrated in urban areas and are usually the same race as their victims.

Violence and Gangs

Gangs are active in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Most gang members are male (92%) and nearly half (40%) are under age eighteen. While the number of gangs and gang members decreased in the late 1990s, youth gangs remain responsible for a disproportionate share of all violent and nonviolent crime. Rates of violence are significantly higher for gang members than for non-gang members, and the rates are higher during gang membership than before or after.

Violence and Drug Use

Surveys of high school seniors show that the risk for perpetration of and victimization by violent and nonviolent crime is higher among students who use illicit drugs. Using multiple "hard" drugs was associated with the highest rates of violence.

Juvenile Suicide

Although not interpersonal violence, suicide is a form of violent death affecting youth. While suicide risk, contrary to homicide risk, is higher for adults than for juveniles, adolescent suicide gets much more attention. Seven percent of all suicides in 1996 involved youth age nineteen and under. For every two young people murdered in the United States, one commits suicide. Youth suicide victims are overwhelmingly male (8 of 10), white (8 of 10), and teenage. Suicide rates for black male youth are parallel to but lower than those for white males. Females are more likely to "attempt" suicide. Between 8 percent and 9 percent of all youths have attempted suicide.

Clinical and epidemiological comparisons between youth suicide and homicide show that their rates tend to be similar, although homicide rates are higher. The fact that the rates are parallel over time suggests that they respond to similar social pressures, such as economic changes.

Child Abuse/Domestic Violence

Younger children are more likely to be victims of violence by family members. Between 1980 and 1997, most murdered children under age six were killed by a family member, whereas most adolescents were killed by an acquaintance or stranger. Differing definitions of child abuse and domestic violence among states and across settings (e.g., legal, medical) make it difficult to determine prevalence precisely. In 1993, nearly 3 million children were maltreated or endangered in the United States; of these, 43 percent were abused. From 1987 to 1996, the number of reported cases of abuse doubled. It is estimated that more than 10 million U.S. children are exposed to marital violence each year.

An Ecological Framework for Understanding Violence

To understand the effects of violence on child development, an ecological framework is useful. Violence is seen as embedded in layers of the child's ecological world. For instance, intrafamilial violence (child maltreatment and domestic violence) occurs in the child's immediate environment. Community (and school) violence occurs where the child and family interact with the social systems of the outside world. Media and societal violence occur in the larger social context. An ecological framework also aids in understanding what protects against and what raises the risk for poor outcome of children exposed to violence by considering the role of child, parents, and peers, and family and community resources.

The Effects of Violence on Children

Some children are exposed to a single severe violent event, such as being caught in sniper fire while leaving school. The negative impact of such exposure is well documented, with these children demonstrating traumatic effects such as reexperiencing and avoiding the trauma, and overreactivity.

Many children, though, are affected by chronic, pervasive forms of violence (e.g., witnessing drug deals, hearing gunfire, fighting) that occurs in multiple areas of their lives (e.g., home, neighborhood, school). They may experience such violence directly as victims, as witnesses or by knowing someone who has been victimized. Some researchers have proposed the concept of multiple risk, suggesting that as children are exposed to an increasing number of risk factors (including violence in multiple spheres), their likelihood for suffering poor outcomes increases disproportionately. In these children, although they may suffer symptoms of trauma seen in children exposed to single violent events, it is more likely that broader declines in functioning are evident, including increased depression and anxiety, increased aggressive and antisocial behavior, decreased social competence, increased delinquency, moral disengagement, as well as decreased academic performance.

It has been widely observed that not all children exposed to violence—even severe, pervasive, and chronic violence—show poor outcomes. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, research was beginning to identify the factors that influence the path from violence exposure to outcome and was considering the role of a wide range of contextual influences.

Violence Prevention and Intervention Programs

Violence prevention and intervention efforts for youth have been developed to target different groups and needs. Primary prevention programs are generally population-based, involving youth, peers, teachers, schools, and families, and are designed to promote prosocial behavior. Many of these programs target elementary school-age children. Secondary prevention and treatment programs target youth who are at high risk for exposure to violence or becoming violent. Tertiary intervention targets youth who are already perpetrators or victims. The most promising components of intervention programs appear to target social-cognitive skills such as perspective taking, generating alternative solutions, building peer negotiation skills, avoiding violence, and improving self-esteem. Such programs are generally considered most effective at the primary and secondary prevention levels.

Violence among youth and affecting youth is not an isolated phenomenon. Patterns of violent crime among youth follow larger societal patterns. Although the courts in the late twentieth century and into the new century tended toward punishment of juvenile offenders, research shows that programs favoring rehabilitation are better. For children exposed to multiple risk factors and levels of violence, single types of intervention, such as a school curriculum, are insufficient. Societal approaches to reducing violence must include a broad array of both governmental and private initiatives. Because the use of firearms accounts for a sustained high level of juvenile homicide rates, governmental regulations targeted toward decreasing access to weapons is necessary. And because more and more children are without parent supervision in the after-school hours when children are most likely to be victims of violence, increasing funding for after-school programs is another key factor in reducing violence and its effects on children.

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Tanya F. Stockhammer