America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009
Youth Victims of Serious Violent Crimes
Violence impacts the lives of young people who experience, witness, or feel threatened by it. In addition to the direct physical harm suffered by victims of serious violence, such violence can adversely affect young victims' mental health and development and increase the likelihood that they themselves will commit acts of serious violence.82,83 Youth ages 12–17 were more than twice as likely as adults to be victims of serious violent crimes.84
Indicator PHY5: Rate of serious violent crime victimization of youth ages 12–17 by gender, selected years 1980–2005 and 2007
NOTE: Serious violent crimes include aggravated assault, rape, robbery (stealing by force or threat of violence), and homicide. Because of changes, data prior to 1992 are adjusted to make them comparable with data collected under the redesigned methodology. Data from 2006 are not included because, due to changes in methodology, 2006 crime victimization rates are not comparable to other years and cannot be used for yearly trend comparisons. See Criminal Victimization, 2006, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cv06.htm. Reporting standards were not met for the 2007 estimate for females.
SOURCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey and Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Supplementary Homicide Reports.
- In 2007, the rate at which youth were victims of serious violent crimes was 10 crimes per 1,000 youth ages 12–17. A total of 248,900 such crimes occurred in 2007.
- Serious violent crime involving youth victims stayed about the same in 2005 and 2007. However, rates are still significantly lower than their peak in 1993. In 1993, the serious violent crime victimization rate was 44 per 1,000 youth, compared to the 2007 rate of 10 per 1,000 youth.
- In 2007, White, non-Hispanic youth were as likely as Hispanic youth to be victims of a serious violent crime.
- Older youth (ages 15–17) were as likely to be victims of a serious violent crime as younger youth (ages 12–14) were in 2007.
82 Finkelhor, D., and Dziuba-Leatherman, J. (1994). Victimization of children. American Psychologist, 49 (3), 173–183.
83 Lauritsen, J.L., Laub, J.H., and Sampson, R.J. (1992). Conventional and delinquent activities: Implications for the prevention of violent victimization among adolescents. Violence and Victims, 7 (2), 91–108.
84 Snyder, H.N., and Sickmund, M. (1999). Juvenile offenders and victims: 1999 national report (Publication No. NCJ 178257, p. 26). Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.