Liberal welfare policies encourage crime, the others are merely the implements

DOJ: 95% Drop in Youth Victimized by Guns; 6x More Likely to be Victimized by Knife; Children of Unmarried 3.8x More Likely To Be Victims

(CNSNews.com) - A new Justice Department study looking at violent crimes committed against “youth”—defined as Americans from 12 to 17 years of age—discovered that the rate of "serious violent crime" committed against youth by a perpetrator using a firearm dropped 95 percent from 1994 to 2010.

The study—“Violent Crime Against Youth, 1994-2010”--also discovered that American youth who were victims of a serious violent crime in 2010 were six times more likely to have been attacked by a perpetrator wielding a knife than one wielding a gun.

Serious violent crimes against youth perpetrated at schools dropped 62 percent from 1994 to 2010, said the study, and students were less likely to become victims of a serious violent crime at school than they were away from school. In 2010, 6.6 out of every 1,000 youth became victims of a serious violent crime at school while 7.4 of every 1,000 became victims of a serious violent crime away from school.

The study, released Dec. 20, also discovered that an American youth was 3.8 times more likely to become the victim of a serious violent crime if he or she lived in a home where the householder was unmarried than if he or she lived with married parents. In 2010, 7.4 out of every 1,000 youth living with married parents became the victims of a serious violent crime. At the same time, 27.8 out of every 1,000 living with an unmarried householder became the victims of a serious violent crime.

Back in 1994, an American youth was slightly more likely to be victimized with a knife than with a gun. But that has changed dramatically in recent years, according to the study.

In 1994, 11.4 out of 1,000 youth became the victims of a serious violent crime committed by a perpetrator with a firearm; and 11.8 out of 1,000 youth became the victims of a serious violent crime committed by a perpetrator with a knife. By 2010, however, only 0.6 out of 1,000 youth were victimized in a serious violent crime committed by a perpetrator with a firearm, while 3.7 out of 1,000 youth were victimized in a serious violent crime committed by a perpetrator with a knife.

The study defined “serious violent crimes” as rape, other sexual assaults, robbery and aggravated assault.

The study also notes that homicides among American youth declined by 65 percent from 1993 to 2010, dropping from 8.4 per 100,000 youth to 3.0 per 100,000 youth.

Between 1994 and 2010, there was also a drop of 78 percent in the number of American youth who were "injured" by a serious violent crime. In 1994, 19.2 out of every 1,000 youth were injured by a serious violent crime, while in 2010 only 4.2 percent were injured by a serious violent crime.

The studies statistics on non-homicide violent crimes was based on annual surveys of American youth conducted by the Census Bureau. In 2010, the Census Bureau interviewed a random sampling of 73,300 youth for the study.