Adolescent Health Care: A Practical Guide

Chapter 77

Youth Violence

Heather Champion

Robert Sege

Violence is a pervasive problem in American society. Adolescents are particularly likely to be affected by interpersonal violence, as victim, perpetrator, and witness. Despite the welcome decline in the incidence of fatal youth violence since the peak rates of the mid-1990s, recent mortality data still show that homicide and suicide cause more deaths than all natural causes combined among children older than 1 year. Homicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24 years overall, and is the leading cause of death for African-Americans in this age-group. Violence takes many forms including homicide, physical assault, and other violent crimes, sexual assault, battering in intimate relationships, and suicide. This chapter focuses on interpersonal violence.

Violent behavior is a complex phenomenon that is stimulated by multiple individual, family, community, and societal factors including gender, exposure to violence, and neighborhood disorganization. The most common misconception is that intentional violence is a premeditated event that randomly affects people unknown to the assailant. The opposite is true, with most violent encounters being impulsive acts occurring among friends and acquaintances and within families. Therefore, the distinction between victim and perpetrator is not always apparent. Among males of all ethnic groups, the most common relationship between offender and victim is that of a friend or acquaintance. In approximately 25% of youth homicides, the victim is the initiator of violence. Emergency Department based studies in Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington DC all demonstrated that most violence-related injuries that required medical treatments were the results of arguments between young people who knew each other. For adolescent female victims, the most common perpetrator is a boyfriend, mirroring the situation for female adults, for whom the most common perpetrator is a family member or intimate partner. Ninety percent of female homicide victims are murdered by males.

The consequences of violent behavior are made more lethal by the presence of a firearm, particularly a handgun. Violence results in death, disability, emotional trauma, and tremendous financial cost for our society. Its presence affects all of us, both as citizens and health care providers, and confronts health care providers with particular challenges. This chapter outlines the epidemiology, etiology, risk and protective factors, prevention strategies, and clinical implications of interpersonal violence.

Epidemiology

Homicide

The United States has the highest homicide rate in the world among industrialized countries. The homicide rate for youth aged 18 to 24 years dropped from 25.7 per 100,000 in 1993 to 15.5 per 100,000 in 1999 with a further reduction to 14.72 per 100,000 in 2004 (Table 77.1) (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System [WISQARS], www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars). Of particular significance, the homicide rate for African-American males aged 18 to 24 years, the highest risk group for death from homicide, dropped from 191.7 per 100,000 in 1993 to 106.8 per 100,000 in 1999 with a further reduction to 97.01 per 100,000 in 2004. The rate of homicides for juveniles 14–17 also fell from a high of 13.3 per 100,000 in 1993 to 5.1 per 100,000 in 2004.

By 2004, the juvenile arrest rate for homicide fell by 77%, reaching the lowest level since the 1960s. In 2004, juveniles were involved in 5% of murder arrests, involving 1,110 young people, one third the number arrested in 1993. Despite this significant downward trend in homicide rates after 10 years of increasing rates, homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15- to 19-year-olds and the leading cause of death among black youth. The United States is the only industrialized country to have a homicide rate of >5 per 100,000 among young men (age 16–24 years); many countries have a rate <1 per 100,000. In 2004, 5,292 youth aged 10 to 24 were murdered, with 80% being killed with firearms. The Department of Justice reports that youth aged 12 to 17 years were twice as likely as adults to be victims of serious violent crime and 3 times as likely to be victims of simple assault (Snyder and Sickmund, 1999).

Teenage males outnumber females as victims of homicide by a factor of >6:1. Young males are more likely to be victims of violent crimes of all categories, except sexual assault and intimate partner violence. Ninety-four percent of youth younger than 18 years who are convicted of murder are males. Of the 5,292 homicides reported in the 10 to 24 age-group in 2004, 85% (4,518) were males and 15% (774) were females.

Physical Assault and Other Violent Crime

The 2005 Centers for Disease Control's (CDC's) National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) has consistently

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found that one third of male high school students (35.9%) had been in one or more physical fights during the previous 12 months. Fights were more common among adolescent boys than adolescent girls (43% versus 28%). Rates were higher among black (43%) and Hispanic (41%) males than whites (33%). Almost 4% of students reported receiving medical attention (which may have been a school nurse) for injuries sustained during a fight.

TABLE 77.1
Adolescent Homicide Rates and Absolute Numbers 1990 to 2004

Youth Age 14–17 yr; Homicide Rate per 100,000

Youth Age 18–24 yr; Homicide Rate per 100,000

Total Number of Adolescent Homicide Victims Age 18–24 yr

White Males Age 18–24 yr; Rate per 100,000

Black Males Age 18–24 yr; Rate per 100,000

Total Number of Black Male Homicide Victims Age 18–24 yr

Data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) (2005) (accessed April 25, 2006). Available from: www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars.

1990

11.0

22.2

5,952

17.2

160.1

3,009

1991

12.4

25.0

6,599

18.7

182.7

4,305

1992

12.3

24.7

6,440

19.0

179.9

3,357

1993

13.3

25.7

6,665

18.4

191.7

3,573

1994

12.5

24.8

6,376

19.0

181.9

3,384

1995

11.6

22.2

5,646

18.2

153.4

2,857

1996

9.5

20.4

5,163

15.8

147.0

2,726

1997

7.8

19.5

4,968

15.0

141.6

2,649

1998

6.4

17.4

4,521

14.1

119.7

2,288

1999

6.1

15.5

4,129

12.0

106.8

2,084

2000

5.2

15.5

4,200

12.0

109.5

2,170

2001

5.0

16.3

4,561

13.6

109.4

2,264

2002

5.0

15.8

4,486

12.8

106.5

2,275

2003

4.8

16.1

4,656

13.0

107.3

2,348

2004

5.1

14.72

4,306

12.33

97.01

2,164

Total number of African-American male homicide victims aged 18–24 yr from 1990–2004:

78,660

Total number of youth homicide victims aged 18–24 yr from 1990–2004:

40,553

After a decade long rise in crime from 1983 to 1994, in 2004, the tenth consecutive year of decline, arrests for serious violent crimes (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) were reduced by 48% (Snyder, 2006). Despite the drop in arrest rates and self-reported rates for homicide, robbery, and rape, arrest rates for aggravated assault remained high at almost 70% above the 1983 level. The arrest rates for simple assault increased from 106% for males and 290% for females from 1980 to 2004.

According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, in 1998 among 12- to 19-year-olds, 1 per 150 was the victim of a robbery, 1 in 13 was the victim of a violent crime, 1 in 16 was the victim of an assault, and 1 in 76 the victim of aggravated assault (Criminal Victimization in the U.S., 2001). Ethnic discrepancies exist for nonlethal violent crime victimization as well. Forty-two per 1,000 Blacks and 32 per 1,000 whites reported experiencing violent crimes in 1999. Native Americans experienced violent crime at more than twice the national average.

Sexual Assault

Female adolescents have the highest risk of any age-group for being subjected to sexual assault. According to a recent CDC study, approximately 9% of women and 1.9% of men report being sexually assaulted before 18 years of age (Tjaden and Thoennes, 2000). The 2005 YRBS found female students (11%) more likely to have been forced to have sexual intercourse compared to male students (4%). Rates of forced sex were higher among black (9%) students than white (7%) students.

Dating Violence

The 2005 YRBS reports that in the 12 months preceding the survey, 9% of students nationwide had been hit, slapped, or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend, girlfriend, or date. The prevalence of dating violence was higher among black (12%) students than Hispanic (10%) or white (8%) students. Rates among males and females were comparable within race/ethnicity. Most survey studies conducted in the last decade indicate that males report being victims about as frequently or more than females (Malik et al., 1997), but that females are at increased risk for more severe injuries.

Suicide

In the 12 months preceding the 2005 YRBS, 13% of students nationwide reported a plan to attempt suicide and 8% reported an attempted suicide. Overall, the prevalence of having made a suicide plan was higher among white

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and Hispanic students than black students (13%, 15%, and 10%, respectively). Completed suicide rates among adolescents are highly correlated with household handgun ownership rates.

Risk Factors Associated with Violence

Several key risk factors for violence and violence-related injuries have been identified. They are complex, interdependent, and influenced by individual, family, and societal variables and include access to firearms and weapon carrying; gang involvement; exposure to violence at home including violent discipline; domestic violence and child abuse; and exposure to media violence, alcohol, and other drug use.

  1. Access to firearms: An estimated 200 million firearms are in civilian hands in the United States, and approximately 60 million of these are handguns. Approximately 43% of homes have one or more handguns; at least 30% of gun owners with children keep one or more loaded guns in the home. Consequently, approximately 9 million adolescents have access to handguns in their own homes. When a teenager fires a gun at home, the most common victim is himself or herself, with the second most common victim being a friend. The victim is essentially never an intruder. When there is a handgun at home, a household member or friend is roughly 43 times more likely to be the victim of the firearm than an intruder. A gun stored in the home is associated with a fivefold increased risk of completed suicide (Kellerman et al., 1992).

In 2004, 6,540 youths aged 15 to 24 were involved in firearm-related deaths, a decline of over 44% since 1994. Among 15- to 24-year-olds, there were 4,127 homicides using a firearm, 2,104 suicides using a firearm, and 172 accidental firearm deaths (WISQARS). In 2004, 80.6% of homicide victims aged 10 to 24 were killed with a firearm.

  1. Weapon carrying: Approximately one fifth of high school students (19%) in the 2005 YRBS reported carrying a weapon (i.e., gun, knife, or club) on at least 1 day in the month before the survey. Several studies, including the YRBS of the CDC, have indicated that surprising numbers of male adolescents carry weapons periodically. Weapon carrying was more commonly reported among boys than girls (30% versus 7%), and 6% of students reported carrying their weapon to school in the last 30 days. The percentage of students carrying weapons decreased between 1991 and 1997 and stabilized between 1997 and 2003 (26%, 18%, and 17%, 19%, respectively).

Carrying of weapons increases the risk of violent behavior and violence-related injury by providing a false sense of security that contributes to impulsive behavior. The principal effect of having a gun is worsening of the outcomes of violent encounters. Fistfights or assaults result in deaths, retaliation for perceived slights may result in a death, attempted rapes, robberies, and suicidal gestures are completed. The single most important factor in all kinds of firearm-related injuries is the accessibility to firearms themselves; recent studies have demonstrated the relationship between firearms ownership rates and overall homicide rate (Miller et al., 2002). In addition to the substantial risk of homicide associated with firearms availability, access to firearms is also strongly associated with suicide deaths (Miller et al., 2001).

  1. Alcohol and other drug use: The role of drug and alcohol use on violent behavior is not clear. Although most violent adolescent offenders use drugs and alcohol, the onset of substance use usually occurs after the onset of violent behavior. In one study, >80% of self-reported violent incidents involved no drugs or alcohol (Huizinga et al., 1995). Risk may be in the social setting of substance use and violence and the co-occurrence of adolescents engaging in multiple risky behaviors. Some violence stems from the need to support drug abuse and from involvement in illicit drug sales.
  2. Gang participation: The 1999 National Youth Gang Survey reported >26,000 youth gangs in schools and communities and 840,500 gang members in the United States, a decline of <1% from the peak in 1996. Although gang members represent a relatively small proportion of the adolescent population, they commit most of the serious violence by youth. Children and adolescents who participated in gangs are more likely to promote aggressive attitudes, report victimization experiences, be involved in fights, carry weapons to school, and use drugs or alcohol at school. Nationally, approximately 4% of youth homicides are gang related. However, in inner-city environments, in regions where gangs are prevalent, gang violence may account for as much as 30% to 40% or more of young homicide victims. In 1999, 47% of gang members were Hispanic, 31% black, 13% white, and 7% Asian. Gang members are primarily male (92%). Many young people join gangs out of fear for their safety, or to join a popular group. In those settings, provision of alternative recreation opportunities for youth appears to successfully diverts many of them.
  3. Exposure to violence: Exposure to violence includes exposure within one's family including being a victim of and/or witnessing child abuse, witnessing domestic violence; violence in the media, including television and video games; and within one's neighborhood or community. Witnessing violence by children increases the risk that they will react violently later in life. More than half of the 6-year-old inner-city children in a cross-sectional study of exposure to violence had more behavior, emotional, attention, and social problems than those who did not.
  4. Violent discipline: The use of violent discipline teaches children that violence is an appropriate means of shaping behavior and solving problems. In addition, children whose parents are unable to set effective limits may develop dysfunctional behavior patterns of interaction, particularly if corporal punishment is used extensively. Dysfunctional interaction may lead to poor performance and social isolation in the early school years and, later, association with peer groups that reward violence and antisocial behavior (Patterson et al., 1989; Tremblay et al., 1994, 2004). Parents appear to use corporal punishment when they have exhausted other means of disciplining their children.
  5. Child abuse: Experiencing child abuse as an infant or toddler is a well-documented risk factor for later participation in violent behavior. A longitudinal study designed to examine long-term effects of abuse and neglect found that both physical abuse and neglect (but not sexual abuse) increased the likelihood of

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arrest as a juvenile by >50%, arrest as an adult by 38%, and arrest for a violent crime by 38%, compared with a matched comparison group (Widom, 1992). Child abuse prevention is a critical component of violence prevention.

  1. Domestic violence: Witnessing violence in the family environment as a young child, in particular spousal battery, has in a number of studies been found to correlate with later violent behavior, both in intimate relationships and in the society at large. Subjecting children to intimate partner violence of parents is a form of emotional abuse of children and in many states may be reported to Child Protective Services.
  2. Media violence: More than 3,500 studies now confirm the association between higher levels of viewing violence and increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and increased aggressive behavior. Children form attitudes about violence at a young age. Children exposed to media violence are more likely to behave aggressively. Watching media violence causes desensitization, particularly among young viewers (Strasburger and Grossman, 2001). The average American child, by the age of 18 years, will have viewed 200,000 acts of violence, including 40,000 murders. Preschoolers watching 2 hours of cartoons daily will be exposed to 10,000 acts of violence annually. These portrayals help form early values and perceptions. Pediatricians may effectively counsel parents concerning media exposure (Sege and Dietz, 1994), by suggesting that children younger than 2 years do not watch television and that older children be limited to 2 hours/day of total screen time. With the advent of V-Chips and television rating systems, more information is now available to parents regarding the content of television and other media.

Resilience

Protective Factors

Protective factors are individual or environmental factors that buffer or moderate the risk of violence. The Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence reviews several proposed individual-level protective factors including an intolerant attitude toward deviance (including violent behavior), high IQ, female gender, positive social orientation, perceived sanctions for transgression; family-level factors including a warm, supportive relationship with parents or other adults, and parental monitoring or supervision of activities; and school- or community-level protective factors including commitment to school, involvement in school activities, and having friends who behave conventionally. Only two of these factors have been shown to buffer the risk of youth violence—an intolerant attitude toward deviance and a commitment to school.

Recent studies using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth have demonstrated the importance of protective factors, including community, family, and individual factors. At the community level, youth reported less violence involvement if they felt connected to school, to adults outside their families, and if they felt safe in their neighborhoods. Lower levels of violence were reported by teens who felt connected to their families, shared activities with their parents, and felt that they could talk about their problems with their parents. Interestingly, religiosity was a protective factor for girls, but not for boys. At all levels of risk, the effects of these protective factors—which the authors describe as “connectedness”—strongly reduce the likelihood of violence (Resnick et al., 2004).

A cross-sectional study in Vermont demonstrated an inverse relationship between the number of protective factors and health risk behaviors, including violence (Murphey et al., 2004). School-based programs that increase social connection reduce the incidence of violence and are more effective than traditional risk-based programs. In the office setting, parents and providers both have strong preferences for asset- or strength-based counseling and assessment (Sege et al., 2006). The American Academy of Pediatrics has just released a new violence-prevention program, Connected Kids: Safe, Strong Secure, which is primarily based on the promotion of resilience.

Other Factors: Schools

The U.S. Department of Education reported 188,000 fights or physical attacks not involving weapons, 11,000 fights involving weapons, and 4,000 incidents of sexual assault in schools during the 1996 to 1997 school year. Nevertheless, school remains by far the safest place for children. Vital statistics estimate that fewer than 1% of child and adolescent homicides occur in school (WISQARS), and the overwhelming proportion of assaults that do occur in school are relatively minor in severity. For perspective, about twice the number of Americans are killed by lightning each year as are killed on school campuses.

School is a critical environment for young people to learn socially appropriate and constructive behaviors and methods of addressing conflict. Adolescents who fail at school, or leave for any reason, are at vastly increased risk for violence-related injury compared with teens who attend school. Homicide is, in the scope of violent events, relatively rare, and other violent encounters such as fights and robberies are much more common. Young people who emerge as bullies, develop uncontrolled rage, engage in threatening language or behavior, carry weapons, or engage in frequent fighting or other antisocial activity must be identified, preferably helped, to reduce their antisocial behaviors, and if necessary, placed in settings where they are not a threat to other young people. When young people do engage in a violent act, it is unusual for them to have been no preceding signs. All of the events that have involved multiple homicides on campuses and in communities by youth have one thing in common—the young perpetrators had easy access to firearms, on some occasions, automatic firearms.

Assessment of Risk

To implement interventions which decrease the risk of violence, it is recommended that health care providers assess the risk of the youth's involvement with violence, including taking a thorough history of the teen's involvement with violence as an aggressor, a victim, a witness to violence in the community, a nonviolent problem solver, or a participant in gender role–related violence. In assessing risk, as with other situations, one must be cognizant of the developmental stage of the youth, and the clustering of risk factors. For example, among males there is a strong

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association between cigarette smoking and weapons carrying. Complete assessment should include focused attention on connectedness of the teen to school and community. The mnemonic device FISTS (Fighting-Injuries-Sex-Threats-Self-defense) can be used as a guide in the collection of a violence-related medical history (Table 77.2).

TABLE 77.2
FISTS

The FISTS mnemonic is adapted with permission from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Alpert EJ, Bradshaw YS, Sege RD. Interpersonal violence and the education of physicians. J Acad Med 1997;72:S46.

FISTS: Fighting-Injuries-Sex-Threats–Self-defense
This mnemonic provides the basis for assessment of an adolescent's risk for involvement in violence

Fighting
How many fights have you been in during the past year?
When was your last fight?

Injuries
Have you ever been injured in a fight?
Have you ever injured someone else in a fight?

Sex
Are you scared of disagreeing with your partner?
Does your partner criticize or humiliate you in front of others?
Are you scared by your partner's violent or threatening behaviors?
Has your partner ever forced you to do something sexual you didn't want to do?
Every family argues. What are fights like in your family or with people you're dating? Do they ever become physical?
Do you think that couples can stay in love when one partner makes the other afraid?

Threats
Has someone carrying a weapon ever threatened you? What happened?
Has anything changed since then to make you feel safer?

Self-defense
What do you do if someone tries to pick a fight with you?
Have you ever carried a weapon in self-defense?

Asking about weapons in the context of self-defense facilitates a more candid response. In all cases, carrying a firearm indicates high risk. Carrying a knife is not as clearly identified with violent behavior. For example, a small pocketknife may or may not be considered high risk.

Youth at low risk do not report recent fights, are in school, and do not report use of illicit drugs or alcohol. Moderate-risk youth may report one to two fights in the last year, or associated risk factors on the FISTS screen or occasional drug or alcohol use. High-risk individuals are not in school, or they report two or more fights in the last year. Moderate-risk and high-risk individuals may need further counseling or referral.

Prevention and Intervention

Recently, there has been a proliferation of violence-prevention programs. Programs tend to be funded for relatively short periods and limited in scope, so longitudinal effects on participants and broader societal measures of violent incidents are not valid measures. Promising approaches begin as early in life as possible, are sustained over time, and enhance nurturing and nonviolent parenting methods. Resources for successful prevention programs are included in the Internet resources at the end of this chapter.

Primary Prevention Interventions

Primary prevention strategies are either directed at the entire population or focused on selected populations at greatest risk. Any serious strategy of violence prevention must include efforts directed at young children, during which time basic values and approaches to frustration and conflict are learned. Particular issues to be addressed include familial violence, corporal punishment, child abuse, and early exposure to media violence, which are known to correlate with later violent behavior of children and adolescents. Recent research has suggested that effective primary prevention programs will be directed toward the promotion of resilience, as well as risk reduction. Effective strategies include the following:

  1. Identification of young, stressed, and particularly socially isolated parents, and providing them with home visitation and early intervention parenting training programs.
  2. Increasing financial stability of impoverished families at risk, particularly families headed by single parents.

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  1. Identification and referral of pregnant and parenting teenagers and their partners to teen parenting and support groups.
  2. Preschool programs that address intellectual, emotional, and social needs of young children and encourage the development of nonviolent conflict-resolution skills.
  3. Reduction of early childhood exposure to media violence, including cartoon violence.
  4. Engaging teens, particularly young teens, in supervised recreational activities.
  5. Improving the quality of the school environment, and development of stable after-school programs with extensive activities for youths.
  6. Provision of safe, supervised routes (“safe corridors”) to and from school for youths in troubled neighborhoods.
  7. Increased access to after-school programs.
  8. Prevention of school truancy and dropout.
  9. Employment programs for teenagers, including those who are out of school, or after-school and vacation employment for teens in school.

In addition, curricula for conflict resolution have been developed for use in secondary schools. Specific curricula approaches that appear to be effective are as follows:

  1. Alternative solution generation
  2. Self-esteem enhancement
  3. Peer negotiation skills
  4. Problem-solving skills training
  5. Anger management

Effective primary prevention programs must be developmentally appropriate and comprehensive in approach (particularly those involving teenagers) and must include multiple components, reinforcing nonviolent behaviors in various contexts such as the family, school, peer groups, and the media. These approaches attempt to provide access to ongoing relationships with nonviolent, caring adult mentors, particularly for those teens from stressed or single-parent families. By reducing risk factors, children and adolescents are empowered to resist effects of detrimental life circumstances.

While many of these programs are community based, office-based counseling may also be effective. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Connected Kids program offers clinical resources and public education materials to support violence prevention in the primary care setting.

Firearms

Fundamental to a public health approach to prevention is a change in environmental risk factors. Access to firearms is the principal environmental risk factor for lethal violence. Removal of firearms from the environment of adolescents through legislation, strict enforcement of existing laws, and removal of firearms from the home environment is essential in the prevention of the grave consequences of violent behavior. It should be recognized that a serious consideration of the adolescent emotional developmental characteristics must lead one to the conclusion that educational interventions alone are unlikely to be successful with many children and adolescents (American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Injury and Poison Prevention, 2000).

Recommendations include the following:

  1. Removal of firearms: Parents of adolescents and children should be encouraged to remove firearms from their homes. This is consistent with the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (1994). Attempts at interventions short of removal have not been shown to reduce mortality. Parents who keep loaded firearms at home should be informed that this is extremely dangerous for their children, and they may be held legally culpable for any adverse consequences. Parents must be made aware that if they keep a gun at home, the most likely victim is their teenage son/daughter and that firearms at home are far more likely to be used to shoot a friend or a family member than an intruder. Additionally, parents may enquire about the presence of loaded firearms in the homes of their children's friends and require that they be eliminated before children can play in the area.
  2. Locked containers: aIf parents are unwilling to remove firearms from the home, they should be advised to separate ammunition from the weapons and keep both in separate securely locked containers. Trigger locks should be placed on all firearms. It must be emphasized, however, that although this may reduce impulsive access to firearms in the home, teenagers have manual dexterity equal to that of adults and these measures may have a limited impact on the adolescent's ability to obtain and use a firearm if he or she is determined to do so. Weapons should therefore always be stored unloaded, with the ammunition locked separately.
  3. Safety classes: Because accidental discharges make up few firearm injuries, safety classes in use of firearms have never been shown to reduce the risk associated with firearm ownership. In contrast, several studies have shown that gun safety classes do not overcome the natural curiosity of children.
  4. Strict laws: Most states have laws that make it an offense for a minor to be in possession of a firearm under most circumstances.
  5. Handgun regulations: American Academy of Pediatrics, Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (1994) and many other medical and health organizations recommend that private, unlicensed ownership of handguns be banned. Regulations may, over time, reduce the number of handguns in circulation. Preliminary studies in California indicate that most firearms used in homicides were purchased within 2 years of use in a crime. Reductions in sales may have a more rapid impact on reducing public access than is generally thought.

Secondary Prevention Interventions

Although the causes of juvenile violence are not completely understood and programs designed to prevent delinquency have not been thoroughly evaluated, successful approaches to intervention appear to have the following characteristics:

  1. They are appropriately supportive of children and adolescents and their families.
  2. They are intensive (i.e., they involve the commitment of considerable time, personnel, and effort).
  3. They are broad based; that is, they intervene in a number of systems, including family, school, and peer, in which the child or adolescent is involved and use multiple services including educational, health, and social as appropriate for the individual child or adolescent.

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Secondary interventions may be directed at teens who have been identified after their risk behaviors have become apparent. These interventions support adolescents identified as at risk in making a successful transition through school and into employment; they help nurture relationships with supportive adults (Elliot, 1994). They may include the following:

  1. Enhancement of the school environment with smaller-size classes and supervised after-school activities
  2. Supporting successful transition to adult roles through access to job training, apprenticeship, and job placement
  3. Providing caring, nonviolent adult mentors
  4. Integrating adolescents into activities with nondisturbed peers
  5. Intensive individual or family psychotherapy

Children and youth hospitalized for violence-related injuries are at particular risk. Hospital based psychoeducational approaches to risk reduction have not been as effective as once hoped; it appears that long-term improvement in outcome depends on linkages with community resources. Several cities have adopted promising programs that link injured youths with community-based service organizations that offer ongoing programs that positively engage these patients, and, when needed, provide concrete services and support (Marcelle and Melzer-Lange, 2001).

Tertiary Intervention

Tertiary intervention takes place after a teen has become embroiled in violent activities and may occur largely through the juvenile justice system. When the juvenile justice system was created approximately 100 years ago, it was intended to be a “kind and just parent,” acknowledging that children were inherently different from adults, less culpable for their acts, more amenable to rehabilitation, and that a community-based, comprehensive approach was the most effective way to achieve rehabilitation. By 1915, almost all states had a juvenile court and the model spread internationally. The original goals of the juvenile court were to shield children from adults, protect the privacy of children, and allow adolescents to enter the workforce without a police record. During the 1990s, despite the fact that crime rates had been dropping significantly, these goals were rapidly eroded. Many states passed legislation making sentences more punitive, facilitating transfers of juveniles to adult court, and corroding protections of confidentiality. In effect, these measures blur the distinctions between adult and juvenile offenders (National Academy Press, Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice. (2001) Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. National Research Council, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, 1993). These policies rely less and less on rehabilitation and increasingly attempt to manage juveniles through the adult criminal justice system. More than 90% of children involved in the juvenile justice system are nonviolent offenders, with most offences involving property or substance offenses such as theft, burglary, and drugs. On any given day, >90,000 children are in juvenile detention or correctional facilities; in addition, more than an estimated 9,000 adolescents younger than 18 years are in adult jails (Snyder and Sickmund, 1999). This is a cause for concern, because children held in adult jails are 8 times more likely than those held in juvenile facilities to commit suicide, 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted, and twice as likely to be beaten by prison staff (Forst et al., 1989).

The effectiveness of punishment on antisocial behavior is of significant debate, and there is no clear evidence that punishment either improves behaviors or reduces the recidivism rate. Research that exists tends to indicate that incarceration efforts of the judicial system tend to actually worsen the outcomes for young people. Evidence for the effectiveness of incarceration in reducing later illegal activity does not exist. Incarcerated adolescents have a 50% to 70% chance of being arrested within 2 years of release. Juvenile justice policies are frequently not designed based on prevention research but in a legislative response to particular aberrant and well-publicized events. For example, boot camps have been widely adopted as a model for treatment of incarcerated teens, with no evidence of effectiveness at all; in fact, studies indicate that teens who have participated in boot camps have a 75% recidivism rate, even worse than incarceration. In addition, recent investigations into some of the 50 boot camps operating around the country have revealed widespread abuse and neglect (Children's Defense Fund, 2001).

The disproportionate incarceration of minority adolescents, particularly Latino and African-American teens, has been a source of grave concern for many years. Research indicates that this overrepresentation is a product of actions occurring through the entire juvenile justice system, from the decision to make the initial arrest, the decision to hold a youth in detention, the decision to refer a case to juvenile court, the prosecutor's decision to prosecute a case, to the actual judicial decision, and the subsequent penalty (Building Blocks for Youth, 2000). At every step of the process, minority adolescents are more likely to be treated in a way that inflates the charges and magnifies their chances of incarceration, including the incarceration of minority adolescents as adults, than are white teens for the same offenses (Males and Macallair, 2000). Minority adolescents are 8.3 times more likely than their white counterparts to be sentenced by an adult court to imprisonment in a California Youth Authority facility. The juvenile justice system has a budget of approximately $10 billion nationally; most is used for incarceration.

Family-focused, community-based, supervised programs involving offending teens have markedly lower recidivism rates. There is much room for continued research and modification of public policy regarding our approach as a society to young people who are apprehended for illegal activities (Mendel, 2000). Parenthetically, health care for teens in juvenile confinement is a serious concern because incarcerated teens have a greater than average number of health problems that may worsen during confinement, and only 1% of eligible juvenile justice facilities have been accredited as meeting existing voluntary standards for providing health care.

Web Sites

http://www.aap.org/vipp.

http://www.cjcj.org/. Justice Policy Institute.

http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/. Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org. Building Blocks for Youth.

http://www.aypf.org. American Youth Policy Forum.

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Federal Resource Sites

http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/toc.html. Source book on juvenile crime statistics.

http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/YRBS. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/yvoverview.htm. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Factsheet on youth violence.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS).

http://www.juvenilenet.org. The Corrections Connection Network, Juvenile Info Network.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/welcome.html. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

http://www.safeyouth.org. National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center.

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/youthviolence. Youth Violence: A report of the Surgeon General.

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