Forum on Child and Family StatisticsYouth Victims of Serious Violent Crimes
Violence frequently has dire and long-lasting impacts on young people who experience, witness, or feel threatened by it. In addition to causing direct physical harm to young victims, serious violence can adversely affect their mental health and development and increase the likelihood that they themselves will commit acts of serious violence.1, 2
Indicator PHY6 Rate of serious violent crime victimization of youth ages 12–17 by sex, 2005–2023
NOTE: Serious violent crimes include aggravated assault, rape, robbery (stealing by force or threat of violence), and homicide. In 2023, homicides represented 1.09% of serious violent crimes, and the total number of homicides of juveniles has been relatively stable over the last decade. Beginning in 2021, the number of homicides was estimated using the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) National Incident-Based Reporting System. From 1993–2020, the number of homicides was estimated using the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports. Due to methodological changes in the 2006 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), use caution when comparing 2006 criminal victimization estimates with other years. See Criminal Victimization, 2007, https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv07.pdf, for more information. In 2016, the NCVS sample was redesigned, so 2016 estimates among youth are not comparable with estimates for other years. The 2020 NCVS weights include an additional adjustment to address the impact of modified field operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 estimate for female youth did not meet reporting standards due to insufficient unweighted sample cases and is excluded from the graphic. For more information on the weighting adjustments applied in 2020, see the Source and Accuracy Statement for the 2020 NCVS in the NCVS 2020 Codebook (https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/NACJD/studies/38090/summary) and Criminal Victimization, 2020 (https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/cv20.pdf).
SOURCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey and Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, National Incident-Based Reporting System.
- In 2023, the serious violent crime victimization rate for youth ages 12–17 was 5 crimes per 1,000. There were a total of 122,500 such crimes involving youth victims.
- The rate of serious violent crimes involving youth victims ages 12–17 was lower in 2023 (5 crimes per 1,000) than a decade prior in 2013 (9 crimes per 1,000). The rate in 2023 was also lower than the rate in 2005 (14 crimes per 1,000).
- In 2023, older youth (ages 15–17) were just as likely as younger youth (ages 12–14) to be victims of a serious violent crime.
- Among youth ages 12–17 in 2023, male youth were just as likely as female youth to be victims of a serious violent crime.
- Among youth ages 12–17, the rate at which male youth were victims of serious violent crime decreased from 18 crimes per 1,000 in 2005 to 4 crimes per 1,000 in 2023. For female youth, there was no statistically significant difference between the rate in 2005 and the rate in 2023 (6 crimes per 1,000).
1 Turner, H. A., Finkelhor, D., & Ormrod, R. (2006). The effect of lifetime victimization on the mental health of children and adolescents. Social Science & Medicine, 62(1), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.05.030
2 Schreck, C. J., Stewart, E. A., & Osgood, D. W. (2008). A reappraisal of the overlap of violent offenders and victims. Criminology, 46(4), 871–906. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2008.00127.x
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
