Youth Violence Up in Recession, as Prevention Funding Drops

She was too shy to include it in this morning's Quick Hits, but our intern Rachel Krause hit a career milestone this morning with her first piece published in Campus Progress: Killing the Programs We Need Most.

Rachel's piece is an in-depth look at the relationship between youth violence and economic downturns, and what happens when funding for prevention programs run out in the times of greatest need. It's a great topic with particular relevance to the 80 Million Strong youth jobs summit happening today.

Fantastic job Rachel, and congratulations on the publication. We look forward to reading many more.

The summer months are already known for recording increased levels of violence, but when the damaging effects of a recession are combined with the added freedoms of summer, what appears to result are the perfect breeding grounds for youth violence. Criminologists use numerous factors to explain why youth turn to violence, such as poor family relationships, poor grades in school, economic conditions in the community, or drug, alcohol, and tobacco use; however, experts point out that it is difficult to pin-point the cause of a rise in youth violence to one specific variable.

“Youth violence, specifically homicide, seems to move in waves, and social scientists have not been very good at predicting these waves. The recession is one reason why we should expect youth crime to increase, but many other factors, such as what’s happening with drug markets also matter,” says David Hemmenway, Harvard University professor of health policy and Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and the Youth Violence Prevention Center.

[...]

The U.S. Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council says that there are numerous successful youth violence prevention programs that have been implemented, such as Peacebuilders in Hartford, Building Futures in Seattle, gang prevention in San Diego, and the After School Matters program in Baltimore. But because of the economic recession, many successful youth violence-prevention programs might teeter on the verge of disbandment during a time when they are needed most.

Go read the whole piece.