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Frequently Asked Questions...about Youth Violence

By Candice Odgers

What is youth violence?

Youth violence represents an important public health problem. The costs of violence for youth, families and communities are extremely high. Youth who engage in violence are more likely to experience a wide range of negative social and psychological outcomes. Violent youth are also more likely to engage in a number of antisocial behaviors that place themselves and others at risk for serious physical injury, psychological distress and social maladjustment.

Broadly defined, youth violence includes acts that purposely hurt someone (APA,2002). These acts range from various forms of verbal and social harassment to severe forms of physical victimization. The risk of engaging in physical violence is the greatest during mid-adolescence. In the majority of cases, violence occurs between two young people who know each other (Juristat,1999). Youth also engage in high rates of violence against themselves. In Canada, suicide follows motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury related death in both males and females aged 10-19 years (Bureau of Reproductive & Child Health, 1999). Recent data also indicates that dating violence among Canadian adolescents is more common than previously believed, with approximately 29% of girls to 13% of boys experiencing some type of abuse in relationships (Price et al., 2000).

How common is youth violence?

There are two main ways that we are able to describe the prevalence of violence among youth: 1) through police reports (official statistics) and 2) from what kids tell us (self-report data). Biases are present in each of these reporting methods, therefore, it is important to examine both sources when describing the rates of violence among Canadian youth.

Official police charge data indicate that there were a total of 940 violence related charges per 100,000 youth in 2001 (Statistics Canada, 2002). The most common types of violent offences were assaults (674 per 100,000 youth) followed by robbery (145 per 100,000 youth). Self report data from the National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth (NLSCY) supports the notion that a large number of young people have engaged in violence. For example, by the age of 13 approximately 55% of boys and 27% of girls reported being in a fight. According to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (2002), approximately one in ten students reported assaulting someone, having serious thoughts of committing suicide and carrying a weapon within the past 12 months. In addition, approximately 25% of students reported being bullied at school since the beginning of the school year and close to 33% of students reported having bullied someone else (OSDUS, 2001).

Is violence among youth increasing?

Yes and no. According to Canadian official police charge statistics, rates of violent crime among female youth have increased over the last decade while rates of violent crime among male youth have remained relatively stable. Between 1991 and 2000, there was a 66% increase in violent crime charges among female youth (322 to 481 charges per 100,000 girls) versus a 7% increase in violent crime charges among male youth (1328 to 1341 charges per 100,000 boys). When interpreting these numbers, it is important to keep in mind that although female violence has risen it is not skyrocketing with respect to the absolute number of charges and girls continue to be underrepresented as perpetrators of serious forms of overt aggression.

Self-report data from Canadian schools also shows decreasing rates of violent crime among youth (OSDUS, 2001). For example, over the last decade, the percentage of Ontario students reporting that they have assaulted someone (grades 7 through 12 inclusive) declined from 15% to 9%. In this case, assault peaked in 1997 (20%) and declined in 2001 (12%). Survey data also indicated that the percentage of females who reported assaulting someone has also decreased since 1997 (from 14% to 7%).