Youth violence occurs when youth intentionally use physical force or power to threaten or harm others. This public health problem is preventable. It takes several forms like bullying, fighting, threats with weapons, and gang-related violence to gain status. This problem is affecting youth ages 10 – 24 and they can be involved as victim, offender or witness to the violence. 

Every 24 hours in America 1,300 youth are treated in emergency departments for injuries sustained from physical assault. Some risk factors for youth violence include previous experience with violence, harsh discipline at home, social rejection, and poverty. Protective factors include developing problem-solving skills, positive relationships with adults and commitment to school. Some key prevention strategies are provide quality early education, promote family environments that support healthy development, strengthen youth skills, connect you to caring adults and activities, create protective community environments and intervene to lessen harms and prevent future risk.  

Given that the emergency department is where the medical system would encounter these youth needing medical treatment, it is a good opportunity to identify repeat visits by the same youth to determine patterns of violence or abuse. It is also a chance for a screening intervention by the medical provider and to guide the youth towards interventions with a counselor or social worker that can connect them at school or in the community with mentoring and settings to introduce prevention strategies as mentioned above. 

The similarities of youth violence are common across countries, but in the U.S. there are greater access to guns which does result in guns being brought to school by youth members. The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) gathers data to examine the percentages of students in grades 9–12 who reported carrying a weapon on school property & anywhere during the previous 30 days. The survey asks students in grades 9–12 if they had carried a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club anywhere during the previous 30 days & if they had carried such a weapon on school property during the same time period. Overall, 13 percent of students reported having carried a weapon anywhere during the previous 30 days, including 6 percent who reported carrying a weapon anywhere on 6 or more days, 5 percent who reported carrying a weapon on 2 to 5 days, and 3 percent who reported carrying a weapon on 1 day. The survey found an average of 3 percent of students reported bringing a weapon on school property in previous 30 days. In every survey year male students in grades 9 – 12 report higher percentage of carrying weapons, for instance in 2019 males reported 19 percent to females 7 percent for carrying a weapon in the previous 30 days. This simply gives an idea of risk levels and commonality of weapons being present among the youth, but it will vary from community to community.

Youth violence is a year-to-year public health challenge in America. And there are strategies to help reduce and prevent youth violence that are proven to benefit any community to take steps to counter youth violence challenges. And there are professionals like me who are available to consult and help communities to create and implement a tailored plan to help address the youth violence challenge effectively.