Best Practices for the Prevention of Youth Homicide and Severe Youth Violences

For the abridged manuscript, visit the UHI website at www.jhsph.edu/urbanhealth. In 2006, there were 18,573 homicides in the United States, an annual rate of 6.2 per 100,000 population.1 Youth are at especially high risk, particularly Black and Hispanic males. Among males ages 15 to 34, homicide is the leading cause of death among Blacks and the second leading cause of death for Hispanics. Homicide is the second leading cause of death for Black males ages 10 to 14 years and for the entire 15 to 24 year age group. In addition to homicides, 4% of youths ages 12-24 reported that they had been a victim of a criminal act of violence in 2008. While most of these acts of violence did not result in serious injury, 6 out of 1,000 teens and 9 of 1,000 youths ages 20-24 were victims of aggravated assaults in 2008.