|
|
|
Recent
trends in youth violence can be found in the 2001
Wisconsin
Youth Risk Behavior Survey
[go to
State Trends]
In
testimony
of September, 1999, before the U.S. Senate, the Secretary
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala,
provided information regarding the extent of youth violence in the
United States and stated that:
- Homicide
rates among young males continues to decline, with a 25% decline
between 1993 and 1996.
-
In each year since 1988, more than 80 percent of homicide victims
15-19 years of age were killed with a firearm.
The National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control states that:
-
Homicide is the second leading cause of death for persons 15 to
24 years of age and is the leading cause of death for African-American
and Hispanic youth in this age-group.
-
For every violent death, there are at least an estimated 100 nonfatal
injuries caused by violence.
The National Longitudinal
Study of Adolescent Health:
-
Over one in ten middle- and high school youths witness a shooting
or stabbing each year.
-
Nearly one in four African-American youth have this experience.
The U.S. Department of Education ERIC publication "Student
Victimization at School," Statistics in Brief, October
1995 reports:
-
Unsafe school conditions are a reality for many U.S. students.
-
56 percent of surveyed students had personally witnessed some
type of crime or victimization at school, including bullying,
physical attack, or robbery, and that 71 percent reported that
such incidents happened at their schools.
-
Nearly 25 percent of students reported worrying about becoming
victims of crime or threats at school, while 12 percent reported
being victimized at school.
-
Youth violence includes bullying. In1995, 14.5% of students ages
12 through 19 reported experiencing various forms of victimization
at school.
-
In 1996, students age 12-18 were victims of about 255,000 incidents
of nonfatal serious violent crime at school.
The
U.S. Department of Education "Indicators
of School Crime and Safety, 1999" reveals that:
-
In 1997, high school seniors from metropolitan and non-metropolitan
areas were about equally likely to report being victimized at
school in the previous 12 months.
-
13.1% of violent crimes and nearly 18% of simple assaults occurred
in school buildings or on school property in 1994, in both rural
and metropolitan areas.
-
Of all nonfatal crime (theft plus violent crime), 12- 18-year-old
students were victims of about 3.3 million crimes at school in
1996, or 128 crimes per 1,000 students.
-
Of all nonfatal crime (theft plus violent crime), 12- 18 year
old students were victims about 3.1 million away from school,
or 117 crimes per 1,000 students away from school.
-
Youth violence includes suicide, the third leading cause of death
for U.S. 15-24 year olds, although declining by about 10 percent
in the past decade.
In 1999, according to the Youth
Risk Behavior Surveillance, about one in five 9th - 12th
graders reported seriously considering taking their own lives during
the previous year. And nearly 8 percent reported actually attempting
suicide. Suicide among American Indian/Alaskan Native youth are
three to four times those of the general population.
Go
directly to the 1999 Surveillance Summary in HTML
Go directly to the 1999 Surveillance Summary in PDF
[434K]
The 1999
Annual Report on School Safety discloses that students remain
safer at school than out of school:
-
In 1997, 5 percent of all 12th graders reported that they had
been injured on purpose with a weapon while they were at school
during the prior 12 months. Fourteen percent reported that they
had been injured on purpose without a weapon. These numbers have
remained fairly stable over the past 20 years.
-
About 3 percent of 12th grade students reported carrying a gun
to school at least one day during the previous 30 days, showing
neither an increase nor decrease since 1993.
-
Between 1993 and 1997, there was a significant decrease in the
percentage of high school students who carried a weapon (for example,
a club, knife, or gun) on school property, and in the percentage
of students in a physical fight on school property, on at least
one of the 30 days preceding the survey.
-
In 1997, about 24 of every 1,000 students (ages 12 to 18) were
victims of serious violent crimes away from school, but only 8
of every 1,000 students were victims of serious violent crimes
at school or going to and from school.
Go directly
to the 1999 Annual Report in PDF
[1.7M ]
The 1997 National
Youth Gang Survey of the Department of Justice, Office of
Justice Programs, reports youth gang street sales of drugs in the
midwest states in 1997, accounts for:
- The
2nd highest percentage of sales of powder cocaine at 16%
- The
highest percentage of sales of crack cocaine at 38%
- The
2nd highest percentage of sales of marijuana at 32%
- The
3rd highest percentage of sales of heroin at 9%
- The
2nd highest percentage of sales of methamphetamines at 12%
For
the purposes of this research, the Midwest includes the upper plains
states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa,
and the Great Lakes states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,
and Ohio.
The Bureau of
Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
-
Serious violent victimizations in the U.S. peaked in 1993 at 4.2
million, the highest level since the NCVS began in 1973.
-
Between 1993 and 1997, the number of these victimizations dropped
by 27%-to 3 million, the lowest level since the NCVS began.
-
The rate at which juveniles committed aggravated assaults declined
33% between 1994 and 1995 and remained relatively stable thereafter.
-
The rate of robberies by juveniles rose in 1981 and 1993, but
by 1997, had dropped below the rates seen in the 1970's.
|
|
Trends:
Statewide 
Trends:
National