Defining Youth Firearm Violence
“Youth firearm violence” refers to youth who are either victims or perpetrators of youth firearm injuries. The American Psychological Association (APA) explains that not one, but several factors can be associated with youth firearm violence:
“A complex and variable constellation of risk and protective factors makes persons more or less likely to use a firearm against themselves or others. For this reason, there is no single profile that can reliably predict who will use a gun in a violent act. Instead, gun violence is associated with a confluence of individual, family, school, peer, community, and sociocultural risk factors that interact over time during childhood and adolescence.” [1]
Thus, several risk factors contribute to any singular incident of youth firearm violence, regardless of whether the incident is interpersonal, intentionally self-inflicted, or unintentional. Examples of possible risk factors include previous history or experience of abuse or trauma; substance use or exposure; and lack of family support or involvement; among many others. [2]
Youth Firearm Violence in Harris County
Youth firearm violence related to both deaths and offenses increased nationally and in Harris County for almost all youths across all age cohorts and sexes in recent years.
Youth ages 15 to 17 years had the highest number of firearm-related deaths for all sexes from 2016 to 2020 nationally. In Harris County, homicides were the primary cause of firearm-related death for youth ages 0 to 17 years, for the period January 2016 to December 2021. [i]
Firearm-related youth offenses in Harris County also increased overall from 2016 to 2021, while non-firearm-related youth offenses decreased overall. [ii]
Figure 1 shows the changes in youth firearm and non-firearm-related offenses in Harris County from 2016 to 2021. Non-firearm-related youth offenses decreased overall from 2016 to 2021, while firearm-related youth offenses increased overall. Firearm-related offenses among youth in Harris County increased an overall 37.3% from 2016 to 2021 (from 794 offenses in 2016 to 1,090 offenses in 2021). Since 2016, non-firearm-related offenses decreased an overall 52.2% (from 8,675 in 2016 to 4,150 in 2021).
Figure 2 provides the annual distribution of firearm-related and non-firearm-related offenses by age for youth ages 13 to 17 years. From 2016 to 2021, the total non-firearm related offenses declined for all ages across all six years. The number of firearm-related offenses, however, increased for all ages.
The most common types of firearm-related offenses for this period were:
- assault/felony;
- carrying or exhibiting a weapon in school or other prohibited place;
- carrying, possession, or threat of use of a weapon;
Looking at just the top five firearm-related offenses, Figure 3 shows that the number of offenses for robbery increased by 10.9%, and the number of offenses for carrying, possession, or threat of use of a weapon increased by 100.5%. The total number of offenses for assault also increased, while the number of offenses for theft and carrying or exhibiting a weapon in a prohibited place remained relatively constant over time.