Youth Violence

A young person can be involved with youth violence as a victim, offender, or witness. It is important for your and others around you’s safety to help prevent youth violence from happening.

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Consequences of Youth Violence

  • Increases risk for:

    • Behavioral and mental health difficulties

    • Future violence perpetration and victimization

    • Smoking

    • Substance abuse

    • Obesity

    • High-risk sexual behavior

    • Depression 

    • Academic difficulties

    • School dropout

    • Suicide

  • Community consequences:

    • Increases health care costs

    • Decreases property value

    • Disrupts social services

    • Negatively impacted community and school events and attendance, viability of businesses 

Prevention Factors for Youth Violence

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  • Factors that may protect some youth from violence include:

  • connectedness to family or other adults

  • ability to discuss problems with parents

  • the perception that parental expectations for school performance are high

  • frequent shared activities with parents

  •  youth involvement in social activities; commitment to school

  • consistent presence of parent during at least one of the following: when awakening, when arriving home from school, during evening mealtimes, and when going to bed.

Statistics of the Youth Violence Problem

  • Nearly 1 in 5 high school students reported being bullied at school last year

  • 1 in 7 reported being electronically bullied

  • Homicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for those aged 10-24

  • Every day, about 13 youth die from homicide 

  • Youth violence causes about 400,000 nonfatal injuries each year

  • Youth violence costs more than $20 billion annually, which includes everything from medical costs to criminal justice system costs to lost productivity costs, and more

 
 

Resources