Violence exposure, psychological trauma, and suicide risk in a community sample of dangerously violent adolescents

Author: Flannery, D. J. / Singer, M. I. / Wester, K.
Publication: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Topics: Students Adolescents, Crime, Prevention
Keywords: Adolescents Gender Suicide Victimization students
Bibliographic information +

484 dangerously violent teenaged students (who shot or shot at someone or stabbed or attempted to stab someone in the past year) and matched controls were self-surveyed at 6 large urban, small city and suburban high schools in Ohio and Colorado to evaluate risk factors for violence. 25.2% of the dangerously violent female students shot or shot at someone in the last year, 65.2% attempted to stab or stabbed someone with a knife, and 9.6% used both a gun and a knife. For dangerously violent males, 48.4% shot or shot at someone, 30.9% used a knife, and 20.6% committed a violent act with both a gun and a knife. Both dangerously violent females and dangerously violent males reported much higher levels of violence exposure than the matched controls. Dangerously violent females had a significantly higher risk of suicide than non-violent females or all males.