New Research Reveals Alarming Rates of Firearm Violence Among Juvenile Justice Youth After Juvenile Detention in the US.
Up to 25% of young individuals in the juvenile justice system are injured or killed by firearms post-detention, with Hispanic and Black males being the most impacted.
Northwestern University recently conducted a study revealing that within a 16-year period, a quarter of Black and Hispanic males who had been in juvenile detention experienced firearm-related injuries or fatalities.
Although 100 firearm deaths and 234 non-fatal firearm injuries affect the nation’s youth and young adults disproportionately on a daily basis, those who have previously been part of the juvenile justice system face up to 23 times higher risk of firearm-related mortality compared to the general population.
“This research is the first of its kind to concentrate on the prevalence of firearm-related injuries and fatalities among the juvenile justice population.
“Who goes to detention? Most are just kids from poor families. Many of our participants had not even been convicted,” remarks senior author Linda Teplin. “Youth in the juvenile justice system are commonly viewed as perpetrators of violence – but we found that they are highly likely to become victims of firearm injury and death.”
“To address our nation’s epidemic of firearm injury and death,” first author Nanzi Zheng says, we need:
- empirical studies to inform policy
- guide decisions around the most promising
- innovative interventions
- focus on the highest-risk youth, like those in the juvenile justice system
The findings of the study were published today in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Rates of injury and mortality
Drawing from the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a longitudinal study involving 1,829 randomly chosen youth who were newly admitted to juvenile detention in Cook County (Chicago), the researchers discovered that within 16 years of detention, one-quarter of Black and Hispanic males in the study experienced firearm-related injuries or deaths. The rate of such incidents among juvenile justice males was nearly 14 times higher than that among juvenile justice females.
Most demographic groups in the study had significantly higher firearm mortality rates compared to the general population.
Firearm-related fatalities among females in the study were 6.5 times greater than the general population.
For males, non-Hispanic white males had a 23 times higher likelihood of being killed by firearms compared to the general population. Hispanic males’ firearm mortality rate was nearly 10 times higher than the general population.
Although still significantly high, the firearm death rate among Black males was 2.5 times higher than the general population. This difference is less dramatic compared to other demographic groups, as the firearm mortality rate among Black males in the general population is already substantially high.
Implications of the study
Teplin recommends a creative, multidisciplinary strategy to reduce firearm violence, involving legal and healthcare professionals, street outreach workers, and public health researchers.
“People who have been shot are more likely to be injured again or killed. Therefore, hospital emergency departments are ideal settings to implement violence prevention interventions. Poverty also begets violence. We need to address the compound issues that lead to urban blight, such as inadequate housing, unemployment and poor infrastructure,” Teplin said.
Teplin pointed out that while the public is deeply concerned about mass shootings, which account for less than 4% of all firearm deaths, greater attention should be given to the everyday violence that disproportionately impacts impoverished urban youth, particularly people of color.
Views from the Department of Justice
Nancy La Vigne, director of the National Institute of Justice, remarked that the findings were “sobering and underscore the need for further research to better understand the relationship between juvenile detention and firearm victimization.”
She added that it is crucial to examine both the individual factors leading to violent victimization and the broader context of structural inequality due to the study’s racially disparate effects.
Liz Ryan, administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, commented that the study clearly shows the vulnerability to gun violence as one of the many negative consequences associated with juvenile detention.
“These findings demonstrate the comprehensive support that formerly detained youth need and highlights the need for additional research. We must continue to work together to better understand — and mitigate — the challenges faced after juvenile justice system involvement.”
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