The epidemiology of homicide perpetration by children.
dc.contributor.author | Hemenway, David ; Solnick, Sara J. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-01-10T15:01:21Z | |
dc.date.available | 2019-01-10T15:01:21Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2017 | |
dc.description.abstract | Background: The United States has by far the highest rates of homicide perpetration among high-income countries. The perpetration of homicide by children is often newsworthy, but little is known about the incidence or the circumstances of child homicide perpetration. Methods: We use data from the sixteen states reporting to the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) for all years 2005–2012. We read every violent death report that was classified a homicide with a child suspect (aged 0–14). To help ensure that we did not miss any homicide cases we also read those classified as an other-inflicted unintentional firearm injury death with a child shooter, to determine if they were actually homicides. Results: There were 154 child suspects, which corresponds to an average annual rate of 1.2 child perpetrators per million child population. We estimate for the United States as a whole, 74 children per year were homicide perpetrators. Nearly 90% were boys, 79% were aged 13–14, and another 13% were aged 11–12. We created five categories, which accounted for over 70% of events with sufficient information to determine what happened: (1) The caretaker, a juvenile, typically an older brother, is given the responsibility to care for an infant. The homicide usually occurs in a residence, and blunt force is used (no guns); (2) Killing an adult family member, typically a parent or grandparent. These cases usually occur in a residence, and the child uses either a gun or a knife; (3) Impulsive shooting during play, the child typically shoots a sibling or friend. Except for some notion of momentary anger, these cases look much like unintentional firearm fatalities; (4) Robbery, a group of youth are trying to steal money, usually from an adult; and (5) Group Assault, a group of youth are fighting, usually other youth. Conclusions: Child homicide perpetrators are typically boys who use guns, and the events can be classified into a small number of relevant categories. Such a categorization of events is useful for understanding the problem and determining solutions. (Author Abstract) | en_US |
dc.identifier.citation | Hemenway, David ; Solnick, Sara J. (2017). The epidemiology of homicide perpetration by children. Injury Epidemiology, 4(1), 5-10. | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5306269/pdf/40621_2017_Article_102.pdf | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11212/4176 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | Injury Prevention | en_US |
dc.subject | child abuse | en_US |
dc.subject | murder | en_US |
dc.subject | child perpetrator | en_US |
dc.subject | gun violence | en_US |
dc.subject | weapons | en_US |
dc.subject | research | en_US |
dc.subject | fatalities | en_US |
dc.title | The epidemiology of homicide perpetration by children. | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |