Homicide Rates Among US Teenagers and Young Adults

Abstract

HOMICIDE RATES for persons 15 through 24 years old in the United States increased between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Since 1990, the homicide rates for persons 15 through 24 years old have been higher than those for persons who are younger or older.¹ As for most other age groups, homicide rates for these young people began to decline between 1993 and 1994. The rate in 1994 was 3% lower than the rate in 1993, and the rate of 20.0 deaths per 100,000 population in 1995 was 10% lower than in 1994. Provisional data² indicate that the national decline continued in 1996 and 1997. Despite the declines, the homicide rate for persons 15 through 24 years old remains high; the rate in 1995 was 71%, higher than a decade earlier.