title: Youth violence: What we know and what we need to know.
abstract: School shootings tear the fabric of society. In the wake of a school shooting, parents, pediatricians, policymakers, politicians, and the public search for "the" cause of the shooting. But there is no single cause. The causes of school shootings are extremely complex. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School rampage shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, we wrote a report for the National Science Foundation on what is known and not known about youth violence. This article summarizes and updates that report. After distinguishing violent behavior from aggressive behavior, we describe the prevalence of gun violence in the United States and age-related risks for violence. We delineate important differences between violence in the context of rare rampage school shootings, and much more common urban street violence. Acts of violence are influenced by multiple factors, often acting together. We summarize evidence on some major risk factors and protective factors for youth violence, highlighting individual and contextual factors, which often interact. We consider new quantitative "data mining" procedures that can be used to predict youth violence perpetrated by groups and individuals, recognizing critical issues of privacy and ethical concerns that arise in the prediction of violence. We also discuss implications of the current evidence for reducing youth violence, and we offer suggestions for future research. We conclude by arguing that the prevention of youth violence should be a national priority. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: School of Communication and Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University.
authors.forename: Brad J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Bushman
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Children's Digital Media Center, Georgetown University.
authors.forename: Sandra L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Calvert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for Justice, Columbia University.
authors.forename: Geraldine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Downey
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dredze
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminology, Law, and Society, University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gottfredson
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University.
authors.forename: Nina G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Jablonski
authors.affiliation: Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Ann S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Masten
authors.affiliation: School of Law and Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley.
authors.forename: Calvin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morrill
authors.affiliation: Event and Pattern Detection Laboratory, H. J. Heinz III College, Carnegie Mellon University.
authors.forename: Daniel B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Neill
authors.affiliation: Adolescent Communication Institute of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Romer
authors.affiliation: Center for Gun Policy and Research, Johns Hopkins University.
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Webster
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools; D014481:United States; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology