America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007
Youth Victims of Serious Violent Crimes
Violence affects the quality of life of young people who experience, witness, or feel threatened by it. In addition to the direct physical harm suffered by young victims of serious violence, such violence can adversely affect victims' mental health and development and increase the likelihood that they themselves will commit acts of serious violence. 85, 86 Youth ages 12–17 were more than twice as likely as adults to be victims of serious violent crimes.87
Indicator PHY5: Rate of serious violent crime victimization of youth ages 12–17 by gender, 1980–2005
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. The 2005 data were collected during the calendar year and include some incidents that occurred during the previous year. Data for previous years are of victimizations experienced in the calendar year. This was done because the full data for 2005 were not yet available. Analyses comparing these data show only a small difference between the two methods.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Supplementary Homicide Reports.
- In 2005, the rate at which youth were victims of serious violent crimes was 14 crimes per 1,000 juveniles ages 12–17, totaling about 350,600 such crimes.
- Serious violent crime involving juvenile victims stayed about the same between 2004 and 2005. However, rates are still significantly lower than their peak in 1993. In 1993, the serious violent crime victimization rate was 44 per 1,000 juveniles, compared to the 2005 rate of 14 per 1,000 juveniles.
- Males are more than twice as likely as females to be victims of serious violent crimes. In 2005, the serious violent crime victimization rate was 19 per 1,000 male youth, compared with 9 per 1,000 female youth.
- In 2005, Black youth were more likely than White youth to be victims of a serious violent crime and over twice as likely as youth of other races to be victims of serious violence.
- Older teens (ages 15–17) were more likely to be victims of a serious violent crime than younger teens (ages 12–14) in 2005. Older teens also had higher rates of serious violent crime victimization in 2005 (17 victims per 1,000) than in 2004 (11 victims per 1,000).
85 Finkelhor, D., and Dziuba-Leatherman, J. (1994). Victimization of children. American Psychologist, 49 (3), 173–183.
86 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.
87 Snyder, H.N., and Sickmund, M. (1999). Juvenile offenders and victims: 1999 national report (Publication No. NCJ178257, p. 26). Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.