Recent trends in youth violence can be found in the 2003

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.

View the latest Indicators of School Crime Safety: 2003 at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/iscs03.htm
or at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004004

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 PDF [434K]
Go to the main Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance pages to view the 2001 Surveillance Summary

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 ]
  
  

There is a relationship between
gang activity and drug sales.

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.