Youth Violence Research Articles

Tackling Youth Violence

Despite a recent fall in knife-related assaults, there are fears the pandemic has fuelled the factors that give rise to youth violence, prompting fresh calls for action to divert young people from harm

Implementation of a youth violence prevention programme in primary care

Background and objectivesYouth violence is an alarming public health problem, yet, violence screening and interventions are not systematically offered in primary care (PC). This paper describes data from a pilot...

The role of gun supply in 1980s and 1990s youth violence

AbstractYouth violence surged between 1985 and 1994. We argue that a positive supply shock in autoloading handguns played an important role. By the late 1970s, computer numeric control technology had fallen in cost and the number of installed machines increased by 690% from 1978 to 1988. Consumer durable prices fell throughout this period, including the easily machined autoloading handguns. We document a steep fall in handgun prices, leading to predictable changes in purchasing among all American demographics. Local proxies of gun access predict changes in violence over this period as well or better than measures of crack market activity.

Schools, Subcultural Values, and the Risk of Youth Violence: The Influence of the Code of the Street among Students in Three U.S. Cities.

Little is known about the role of subcultural values in the development of violence in schools and among school-aged children. Drawing on the "code of the street" thesis, which identifies schools as important staging grounds in the campaign for respect among young people, this study aims to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing student- and school-level associations between projected violence and self-reported subcultural values revolving around toughness and respect. The analytic sample includes N = 1767 students (53.65% female) in grades 7, 8, and 9 (ages 11-17 years, mean = 13.5 years) at 40 middle and high schools in Boston, MA, Denver, CO, and Miami, FL. Consistent with research involving a variety of adolescent and young adult populations, estimates from multilevel negative binomial regression models reveal a robust positive student-level association between personal adherence to subcultural values and projected violence. However, school-level results indicate a compositional, rather than contextual, effect in which higher school-mean levels of projected violence reflect the aggregate values of individual students rather than independent or interactive processes involving the school-level prevalence of code of the street values. Thus, while code of the street values may be important contributors to youth violence, the school setting appears to play a limited role in transmitting their influence among students.

Fidelity of implementation of the building bridges mentoring intervention to prevent violence among youth in low income settings

Violence among youth is a major health and safety burden globally. There is a dearth in the development and evaluation of targeted interventions that addresses the multi-faceted nature of youth violence to ensure effectiveness and replicability. This study aims to systematically evaluate the fidelity of implementation of the Building Bridges Mentoring intervention that focuses on the prevention of youth violence in two low-income communities in South Africa. This study employed a mixed methods concurrent triangulation design. Qualitative data were analysed using deductive thematic analysis, and quantitative data using descriptive statistics and T-tests. The results indicate that for all the intervention components, implementation fidelity (i.e. adherence, exposure, quality of programme delivery, and participant responsiveness) was generally moderate to high, suggesting a ‘good’ implementation of the programme in the real world. Evaluating the fidelity of implementation is vital to obtain a comprehensive insight into whether an intervention was implemented according to its design, and to verify and validate the findings and outcomes, and accord credibility and integrity of the study.

Child-to-Parent Violence during Confinement Due to COVID-19: Relationship with Other Forms of Family Violence and Psychosocial Stressors in Spanish Youth

This study analyzes child-to-parent violence during strict confinement due to COVID-19 as well as its association with other forms of family violence (parent-to-child violence and exposure to violence between parents) and with different psychosocial stressors: Academics/work, family coexistence, finances, COVID-19 and physical and psychological health. The study included 2245 young people (52.8% females) aged between 18 and 25 years (M = 21.52 years, SD = 2.07 years). The results show that more than half of the young people reported having performed at least one violent behavior toward their parents. Child-to-parent violence is significantly related to violence from parents to their young adult children, to exposure to violence between parents and to different psychosocial stressors: Academics/work, family coexistence and psychological health. The individual and additive predictive value of other forms of family violence and psychosocial stressors in child-to-parent violence is confirmed. Prevention and intervention programs for child-to-parent violence must take into account the role of other forms of family violence present as well as the influence of psychosocial stressors.

Evaluation of Communities That Care-Effects on Municipal Youth Crime Rates in Victoria, Australia: 2010-2019.

Internationally, youth crime is a significant social problem. Violent youth crime has been rising over the past decade in the state of Victoria, Australia. Communities That Care (CTC) is a coalition training process designed to prevent youth crime. There has been limited evaluation outside the USA. Using a non-experimental design, this study employed official state crime statistics to evaluate the impact on crime as the five-phase CTC process was implemented between 2010 and 2019 across communities in Victoria. The standard five-phase CTC implementation cycle was supplemented with universal programs to reduce sales and supply of alcohol to underage youth (under 18years). Growth models evaluated community trends in youth crime (all, person, property and deception and other), comparing communities that implemented CTC at phase 4 or greater with communities that had not implemented CTC. In accord with the hypotheses, the study found significant reductions in crimes associated with CTC over the period between 2010 and 2019. A 2% annual reduction in risk was observed for crimes against persons for all age groups (IRR = 0.98, 95% CI [0.96, 0.998]). A 5% annual reduction was observed for crimes of property and deception for adolescents aged between 10 and 17years (IRR = 0.95, 95% CI [0.90, 0.99]). These findings support CTC as an intervention for preventing youth crime at a population level. Future studies should evaluate intervention mechanisms and economic benefits.

Introduction. Youth violence: De-escalation strategies and socio-legal responses

Despite media suggestions that youth violence is the result of an epidemic of young thugs “out of control”, this paper argues that youth violence is emblematic of complex political, economic and socio-cultural conditions. This introductory paper discusses some of the key themes and articles from our special issue on Youth violence: De-escalation strategies and socio-legal responses, which is the result of a workshop held at the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law in July 2019. It seeks to reflect the rich tapestry of factors, contexts and processes that can place young people at risk of offending, or, perhaps even more importantly, at risk of criminalisation, as presented in the special issue collection. We reflect on the range of perspectives presented across the special issue on youth violence and the de-escalation of such violence, which seek to advance knowledge, and identify strategies for regulating and preventing this behaviour.

Migranthood: Youth in a new era of deportationbyLaurenHeidbrink (2020) Stanford: Stanford University Press, ISBN 9781503612075, 240 pp., $25 (paperback).

Migranthood: Youth in a new era of deportationbyLaurenHeidbrink (2020) Stanford: Stanford University Press, ISBN 9781503612075, 240 pp., $25 (paperback).

Assault-injured youth in the emergency centres of Khayelitsha, South Africa: A prospective study of recidivism and mortality.

IntroductionViolence is a major cause of death worldwide among youth. The highest mortality rates from youth violence occur in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). We sought to identify risk factors for violent re-injury and emergency centre (EC) recidivism among assault-injured youth in South Africa.MethodsA prospective follow up study of assault injured youth and controls ages 14–24 presenting for emergency care was conducted in Khayelitsha, South Africa from 2016 to 2018. Sociodemographic and behavioral factors were assessed using a questionnaire administered during the index EC visit. The primary outcomes were return EC visit for violent injury or death within 15 months. We used multivariable logistic regression to compute adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of associations between return EC visits and key demographic, social, and behavioral factors among assault-injured youth.ResultsOur study sample included 320 assault-injured patients and 185 non-assault-injured controls. Of the assault-injured, 80% were male, and the mean age was 20.8 years. The assault-injured youth was more likely to have a return EC visit for violent injury (14%) compared to the control group (3%). The non-assault-injured group had a higher mortality rate (7% vs 3%). All deaths in the control group were due to end-stage HIV or TB-related complications. The strongest risk factors for return EC visit were prior criminal activity (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.1–5.1), and current enrollment in school (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.0–4.6). Although the assault-injured group reported high rates of binge drinking (73%) at the index visit, this was not found to be a risk factor for violence-related EC recidivism.DiscussionOur findings suggest that assault-injured youth in an LMIC setting are at high risk of EC recidivism and several sociodemographic and behavioral factors are associated with increased risk. These findings can inform targeted intervention programs.

Social Media, Youth Mobilization and Urban Crime

This paper was focused on exploring the drivers of urban crime through social media mobilization of youths. Adopting the use and gratification theory, the paper x-rays the extent to which social media has been adopted by youths in Nigeria for social participation and activities including the perpetration of crime. In addition to changing the way information is shared, social media also provides a veritable tool for the creation of criminal networks which have proved challenging to effective functionality of justice system in Nigeria. The paper further explores the intersection between poverty, youth violence, drug peddling, and activism on the one hand, and social media utilization. To address the problem of urban crime, the paper suggest that government at all levels should engage in massive employment of youths and provides greater focus on positive utilization of social media.

2 - Marginal Youths or Outlaws? Youth Street Gangs, Globalisation, and Violence in Contemporary Sierra Leone


 
 
 
 
 
 Sierra Leoneans were shocked when video clips of the Central Correctional Centre gallows began circulating on social media after the Minister of Internal Affairs instructed the prison authorities to get ready to take life. The Minister’s pronouncement came hot on the heels of a series of alleged gang-related murders that rocked Freetown in 2016. What are the complex linkages between street violence and youth marginalisation? How might violence among marginal youth relate to unplanned urbanisation, the retreat of the state, the neoliberal paradigm, and the wider political economy – all trappings of an exclusionary globalisation process that continues to exclude those at the periphery? This article describes the appropriation by marginal actors of global cultural influences and their transcription into deadly weapons of the weak in furtherance of a survivalist objective anchored in citizenship. The research is based on fieldwork conducted in five cities in Sierra Leone – group discussions and in-depth interviews with over 300 participants, all identifying themselves as gangsters belonging to one of the three dominant team/ set federations: Crip, Blood, and Black (Black Hood or Black Game). Problematising their quotidian existence in contemporary Africa raises fundamental questions about globalisation and citizenship in the making of subaltern subjectivities.
 
 
 
 Ibrahim Abdullah, Department of History and African Studies, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. Email: Ibdullah@gmail.com
 
 

Associations Between Parental Monitoring and Multiple Types of Youth Violence Victimization: A Brief Report.

Youth violence victimization continues to be pervasive and a significant cause of adolescent mortality. Since their 2014 "Connecting the Dots" report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have encouraged researchers to identify shared protective factors that prevent multiple forms of youth violence. Parental monitoring, a bidirectional construct encompassing parental knowledge and regulation of their child's activities with children's concurrent perception of their parent's awareness of such activities, could be such a cross-cutting protective factor. In this study, we examined associations between parental monitoring and multiple types of violence victimization among a school-based sample of adolescents. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of an anonymous survey of health risk and protective behaviors completed by students across Pittsburgh Public Schools (N = 2,426). In separate analyses, we used logistic regression to examine associations between youth-reported parental monitoring and multiple experiences of youth violence victimization, ranging from school- and electronic-based bullying to different forms of sexual and physical violence. We found that many experiences of youth violence victimization were consistent with nationally representative data. In addition, we determined that higher parental monitoring was significantly and inversely associated with all violence victimization outcomes examined (school-based bullying, electronic-based bullying, threatening someone with a weapon, adolescent relationship abuse, sexual assault, and exchange sex) at the p < .05 threshold. Overall, this study is one of the first that examines how parental monitoring relates to multiple forms of youth violence victimization, including exchange sex, which is a critical but less-studied violence experience. This work adds to the growing literature on how parental monitoring may serve as a shared protective factor for multiple forms of violence victimization.

Juventude periférica, gênero, sexualidade e violência de Estado: notas a partir de uma família LGBT na cidade de São Paulo

Esta análise busca explorar etnograficamente questões relacionadas à Família Stronger, coletivo LGBTQIA + da periferia de São Paulo. Famílias LGBT como a Stronger surgem no bojo de um processo de ocupação e deslocamento dissidente no espaço urbano da metrópole paulistana, especialmente a partir do fim do século XX. No âmbito de uma longa pesquisa etnográfica com essa família, exploro alguns de seus caminhos na construção de laços políticos relacionados à vivência citadina, inclusive em sua relação com outros coletivos. Argumento que a ocupação de determinados espaços opera como fator importante na constituição de sentidos geracionais dentro do grupo. Por fim, analisando dois casos distintos de assassinato de adolescentes que representaram nós cruciais no processo de politização das famílias LGBT e detonam uma ocupação específica do espaço público, reflito sobre como a participação política da Família Stronger é Autor0000-00-00T00:00:00Aconstruída em relação à violência contra corpos LGBTQIA+ nos espaços citadinos.

Exploration of Experiences and Perpetration of Identity-Based Bullying Among Adolescents by Race/Ethnicity and Other Marginalized Identities

Race-based discrimination represents an ongoing public health crisis in the US, manifested by wide-ranging disparities in youth health, mental health, and violence exposure. However, studies of racial discrimination often neglect experiences of identity-based bullying (IBB) stemming from other marginalized identities, such as gender identity and sexual orientation. To examine associations between experiences of IBB based on race/ethnicity/national origin and other social identities and youth health, mental health, and violence outcomes. This cross-sectional study analyzed responses from an anonymous survey conducted at 13 public high schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between October 15, 2018, and October 19, 2018. Participants included in the study were in the 9th through 12th grades. Data were analyzed from October 15, 2020, to February 14, 2021. Experiences of bullying and bullying perpetration based on race/ethnicity/national origin and other social identities (ie, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, physical or mental disability, immigration status, other unspecified reason). Youth health (delayed well care; forgone medical care; physical, mental, or emotional limitations), mental health (nonsuicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation), and violence involvement (weapon perpetration or survivorship, fighting, sexual assault, adolescent relationship abuse, experiencing homicide of friend or family member) were assessed using self-reported items modeled on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Among 3939 participants, the mean (SD) age was 15.7 (1.3) years; 1380 students (36.3%) identified as Black/African American, 2086 (53.7%) as assigned female at birth, 1021 (32.6%) as belonging to a sexual minority group, and 313 (10.0%) as gender diverse. Among reported social identities, race/ethnicity-based experiences of bullying (375 students [9.5%]) and bullying perpetration (209 students [5.8%]) were the most common. Youth with multiple stigmatized identities experienced even higher rates of experiences of IBB and IBB perpetration. Specifically, the highest rates of IBB were reported by gender diverse Black and Hispanic youth. Experiencing IBB based on multiple stigmatized identities was associated with all outcomes, including delayed well care (aOR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.20-1.65), forgone medical care (aOR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.44-1.87), nonsuicidal self-injury (aOR, 2.86; 95% CI, 2.53-3.24), suicidal ideation (aOR, 2.49; 95% CI, 2.20-2.83), and greater violence involvement (experiencing violence: aOR, 2.90; 95% CI, 2.45-3.43; homicide survivorship: aOR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.06-1.33). These results further encourage the development of youth health, mental health, and violence prevention programs that address experiences of bullying based on multiple marginalized identities.

Racial moral panic and African youth in Australia

Since the mid-1980s, Australia has resettled thousands of African refugees. This paper focuses on the racialization of youth violence and the damage it sustains on refugee-background young Africans. The discussion proceeds in two interrelated stages. In the first stage, to understand the representation of African youth in the public sphere, the paper reviews the relevant literature, media headlines, and political commentaries. In so doing, it establishes that the continual framing of African youth as dangerous and violence-prone by conservative politicians and media outlets amounts to racial moral panic. In the second stage, guided by narrative research methodology, a small group of young Africans were invited to reflect on their everyday life under racialized frames. Accounts of the youth are presented under four themes: the presumption of guilt, emotional ill-being, opportunity hoarding, and the permanence of otherness. It is argued that, if left unaddressed, the racialization of youth violence can diminish the integration outcomes of African youth.

Youth Violence and Human Security in Nigeria

The failures of governance and statehood in Nigeria breed an anarchical or disruptive system in the state and provide a platform for youth violence and justification for disruptive behaviour against the state systems and structures. Contributing to the available research, this study shifts its focus to understand and address the linkage of disruptive behaviour by studying and discussing Human Security through the lens of youth violence in Nigeria. In doing so, this study adopts a mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative data with Ted Robert Gurr’s theory of relative deprivation to investigate, analyse and discuss the issues herein. From the findings, cultism and ethnic factors were identified as major causes of youth violence among others. Thus, effective institutions, quality education, economic and security regional or geopolitical zones programs is noted as a means to address youth violence in Nigeria.

The left behind: oil, youth and symbolic violence in the Niger delta

ABSTRACT Around the world, the harms and profits of oil exploration are distributed unequally. This inequality has sparked violence in many oil communities, leading to calls for redistributive approaches as an effective way to address petro-violence. Despite the inclusivity potential of distributive mechanisms, distributive agencies are often not level playing ground for community members. The capacity of excluded groups to participate meaningfully in the development agencies is shaped by the operation of symbolic violence. Using ethnographic data and symbolic violence as a theoretical basis in this paper, I map out three doxas – lazy youth, gerontocratic and deviant – which hinder youth participation in the oil development process. I show how these doxas enable institutional leaders in two development agencies in the Niger delta region of Nigeria to accumulate various forms of capital and occupy positions of power in the networks while simultaneously limiting young people’s political participation, employment prospects, and stereotyping them as social threats. Several other dimensions of symbolic domination are discussed: including the misrecognition, acceptance, and resistance of these doxas by the youths themselves. I conclude with a brief reflection on the implication of these doxas for achieving inclusive development in the Niger delta.

Transitivity and youth violence in #EndSARS discourse

, Florence O. Orabueze2 &amp; Violence in Nigeria has reached its peak such that policies that should engage the youths positively are inevitable. This paper aims to establish that Nigerian youths should not be held accountable for #EndSARS protest. Using Halliday and Matthiessen’s Transitivity model, the paper examined the transitivity processes of the major participants in the discourse, and the circumstances implicated. Explication of images appropriated as discursive strategies were accounted for through insights from Kress and van Leeuwen’s Compositional Metafunction in Reading Image Theory. The analysis was done using a descriptive qualitative research design that supports the description of processes attributed to participants, and how social predictors that assign agentive roles to some participants as Actor, or Sayer; and stripe others of their agencies suggest that in the Nigeria’s social context, the #EndSARS protest was inevitable. Such approach was critical in exposing the undercurrents that informed the protest, which previous researches had paid insignificant attention to. From the analysis, several discoveries were recorded, namely: Nigerian government is majorly, a Sayer interested mainly in protecting its pride; the police, and the military are the Actors, while the youths are the Goal in material processes, and behaver in behavioural processes. The paper concludes that the volatility of the youths was a reaction to the processes of the government, and its agencies. The paper, therefore, recommends that government should show practical interest in the plight of the masses by initiating policies that target to engage them constructively so as to prevent future re-occurrence.

Review 1 of "Defense, disrespect, and #deadly: A qualitative exploration of precursors to youth violence informed through hospital-based violence prevention program follow up"

Review 1 of "Defense, disrespect, and #deadly: A qualitative exploration of precursors to youth violence informed through hospital-based violence prevention program follow up"