Date: Second Tuesday of Each Month, 1 p.m. ET
These monthly events allow Facebook users to ask CDC experts questions about concussion and brain injury safety among children and teens. Learn more.
In observance of National Campus Safety Awareness Month, NCJRS has compiled a list of publications and other informational material for practitioners, parents, and the public that provide resources and strategies focusing on campus crime and safety.
This report, which marks the 20th release of this flagship publication, provides the most recent statistics on children and families in the U.S. across 41 key indicators covering a range of domains, including family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. Learn more.
As one of the tools commissioned by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, Safe Place is a resource kit that introduces and endorses trauma-sensitive practice with an emphasis on sexual assault trauma. The kit is designed to help health center staff who work with students in higher education to better understand trauma, infuse trauma-sensitive approaches into their work, and create a care environment that supports students affected by trauma.
This Resource Guide supports the efforts of students, faculty, administrators, and communities around the country to prevent sexual violence and improve the response to it at colleges and universities. The Resource Guide compiles guidance, tools, model policies and procedures, training and technical assistance, funding opportunities, and public messaging materials concerning campus sexual assault.
This fact sheet describes new steps to advance the White House Summer Opportunity Project to increase young people’s access to summer programming and employment. The project includes $21 million in grants to 11 communities to connect disadvantaged young people with jobs, as well as the launch of 16 Summer Impact Hubs, which are communities that will receive support to expand their summer jobs, meals, and violence reduction programs.
This survey monitors six types of health-risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and adults. The 2015 release includes data from the 2015 National YRBS and YRBS data from 37 state and 19 large urban school district.
This article highlights the ways NIOSH protects young workers and provides links to additional resources related to workplace safety and health.
This resource includes 2015 BRFSS data and related information. The BRFSS is a state-based surveillance system that uses survey phone calls to collect information on risk behaviors, clinical preventive health practices, and health care access for adults 18 and older.
This video features Michael Davis, Director of Public Safety at Northeastern University, describing the concept of procedural justice and how it can be integrated into policing operations to improve community relations and address crime challenges.
This free app serves as a digital child ID kit that lets parents save children’s information, including photos and digital fingerprint images, to help law enforcement in the case of an emergency. The app, developed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, also includes a search feature for current missing children and the latest news, media, and child safety tips.
This data access application allows users to analyze national, state, and local Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data from 1991 to 2015. Researchers and other professionals can use this resource to filter and sort YRBSS data on the basis of race/ethnicity, sex, grade, sexual orientation, sex of sexual contacts, or site; and create customized tables, maps, and graphs, and perform statistical tests by site and health topic.
This report, which marks the 20th release of this flagship publication, provides the most recent statistics on children and families in the U.S. across 41 key indicators covering a range of domains, including family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. Learn more.
youth.gov
youth.gov’s Trauma-Informed Approaches webpage features a webinar and brief on implementing a trauma-informed approach for youth across service sectors. The webinar and brief discuss the concept and prevalence of trauma; techniques for coping with and recovering from trauma at an individual and systems level; the core principles for building a framework for understanding trauma; and implementation of elements essential for a trauma-informed system as presented by the featured experts. Visit the webpage.
Youth Engaged for Change (YE4C)
YE4C’s Current Events webpage gives priority focus to the best federal resources for youth that are timely and responsive to the issues that are top-of-mind to youth today. The current focus is on what to do in an active shooter event, coping with community tragedies, building resilience, dealing with trauma, and finding mental health resources. Visit the webpage.
National Child Traumatic Stress Network
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s Responding to a School Crisis webpage provides resources for parents and caregivers, youth, and schools, including individualized guidelines for key school personnel to respond to school crises. The page also provides access to psychological first aid for schools and the 3r's of school crises and disaster. Visit the webpage.
National Resource Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention
The National Resource Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention’s Trauma, Violence and School Shooting webpage provides resources for parents, service providers, and educators who work with youth who are experiencing or have experienced trauma. Visit the webpage.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
SAMHSA’s Incidents of Mass Violence webpage provides information about who is most at risk for emotional distress from incidents of mass violence and where to find disaster-related resources. Visit the webpage.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
SAMHSA’s Coping with Traumatic Events: Resources for Children, Parents, Educators, and Other Professionals webpage provides resources and publications from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, resources to address re-traumatization and chronic stress, and resources for disaster response professionals. Visit the webpage.
National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE)
NCSSLE’s Resilience Resources webpage provides two resources on resilience. Bolstering Resilience in Students: Teachers as Protective Factors provides an overview of research on student resilience, particularly teachers' role in creating an environment where students can develop the ability to overcome challenges, and reviews key protective factors and seven strategies teachers can employ in creating environments that foster resilience in students. Adolescent Health Highlight — Positive Mental Health: Resilience presents key research findings on characteristics that are associated with resilience, describes program strategies that promote resilience, discusses links between resilience and avoidance of risk-taking behaviors, and provides helpful resources on resilience. Visit the webpage.
Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) TA Center
REMS TA Center’s Adversarial- and Human-Caused Threats webpage offers a variety of federal agency partner resources related to planning for adversarial- and human-caused threats that may affect school districts, schools, institutions of higher education, community partners, and parents. Visit the webpage.
Ready.gov
Ready.gov’s Active Shooter webpage describes what to do if you find yourself in an active shooting event, how to recognize signs of potential violence around you, and what to expect after an active shooting takes place. Remember during an active shooting to RUN. HIDE. FIGHT. Additional resources, including booklets, pamphlets, posters, and pocket cards, are also available. Visit the webpage.
This webpage from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control provides parents with resources and key prevention tips for helping children and youth avoid sports- and recreation-related injuries.
This webpage from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control provides parents with resources and key prevention tips for helping children and youth avoid sports- and recreation-related injuries. Learn more.
This free, online repository offers a variety of resources, strategies, guidelines, and templates to empower practitioners and campus leaders to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from various threats and hazards relevant to the academic community. Learn more.
Youth play an important role in strengthening programs and improving youth outcomes. The Youth Engaged 4 Change (YE4C) website was created by the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP) in partnership with youth and young adults who make change happen every day. While youth.gov is geared toward providing information for adults who work with youth in various settings, YE4C is meant to reach young people directly.
Now the site has a fresh, new look with content that continues to inspire and empower young people to improve their lives and the world around them. The newly-redesigned site helps youth who want to:
Check out engage.youth.gov for these exciting new changes!
Thousands of people experience youth violence every day. Youth violence negatively impacts youth in all communities—urban, suburban, rural, and tribal.
The impact of youth violence is not the same for all young people and communities. The rates and types of youth violence vary across communities and across subgroups of youth. These disparities can be attributed to different exposure to risk and protective factors.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
This bureau at the U.S. Department of Justice collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.
Indicators of School Crime and Safety
The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice publish this report on school crime and student safety each year.
National Center for Education Statistics
NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.
National Violent Death Reporting System(NVDRS)
NVDRS provides states and communities with a clearer understanding of violent deaths to guide local decisions about efforts to prevent violence and track progress over time. NVDRS is the only state-based surveillance (reporting) system that pools data on violent deaths from multiple sources into a usable, anonymous database.
Statistical Briefing Book
This resource enables users to access online information via OJJDP's website to learn more about juvenile crime and victimization.
Uniform Crime Reporting
The FBI collects data on crime in the United States. Each year, the FBI publishes a summary of Crime in the United States, Hate Crime Statistics, special studies, reports, and monographs.
WISQARS
CDC’s WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) is an interactive, online database that provides fatal and nonfatal injury, violent death, and cost of injury data from a variety of trusted sources.
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
CDC administers a nationwide survey every two years in public and private high schools so investigators can examine behaviors related to fighting, weapon carrying, bullying, dating and sexual violence, and suicide.
[i]Kann, L., McManus, T., Harris, W.A., et al. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Surveil Summ. 2016;65(SS-06):1-174. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ volumes/65/ss/pdfs/ss6506.pdf.
[ii]Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) [online]. (2016). [cited 2018 Sept 7] Available from www.cdc.gov/injury
[iii]Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth online: high school YRBS [Internet]. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; 2017 [cited 2018 Sept 7]. Available from: http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/youthonline/App/Default.aspx.
[iv]Institute of Medicine. The health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people: building a foundation for better understanding. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2011.
No single factor explains why some youth perpetrate or become a victim of violence or why violence is more prevalent in some places than others. Violence results from a complex interplay of a variety of factors.
Understanding the range of factors that put youth at risk for violence or protect them from experiencing or perpetrating violence makes it possible to develop comprehensive, multilevel, evidence-basedstrategies to prevent and eliminate violence and improve overall child well-being.
Individual
Biological and personal history factors can increase the likelihood of becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence. These can include physical and cognitive challenges (e.g., fetal alcohol disorders, learning disorders), impulsive or aggressive tendencies, history of trauma (including involvement with foster care and homelessness), exposure to violence, and involvement with drugs or alcohol.
Other factors can buffer young people from the risks of becoming violent, even if they have experienced the other kinds of risk factors listed above. These include academic achievement, high educational aspirations, positive social orientation, and highly developed social skills/competencies.
Relationships
The close relationships in a young person’s life can either increase or reduce the risk of experiencing violence as a victim or perpetrator. A person’s closest social circle—-peers, partners, and family members—influences their behavior and contributes to their experience.
Risk factors at the family level include: authoritarian childrearing attitudes, low parental involvement, poor family functioning, and parental substance abuse or history of criminal involvement. Peer and social risk factors include involvement in gangs and social rejection by peers.
Protective factors that can reduce the risk of violence include connectedness to family or other caring adults, frequent and positive shared activities with parents, positive engagement with teachers in supportive school climates, and involvement in prosocial activities.
School, Community, and Society
Other factors often overlooked are settings in which social relationships occur, such as schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Characteristics of these settings can increase or decrease the risk of violence. Broad societal factors can also play a role since they can create a climate in which violence is either encouraged or inhibited.
Risk factors can include aspects of the built environment (e.g., high concentrations of poor residents, design factors, such as open and green spaces, lighting, etc.), social environment (e.g., diminished economic opportunities, low levels of community participation, socially disorganized neighborhoods), community-level trauma (e.g., historical trauma, chronic exposure to violence), other environmental factors (e.g., lead and other toxic substances and their relationship to neurological functioning and brain development), prevailing cultural and societal norms, and the interaction of youth and families with community institutions, including schools, police, courts, child welfare agencies.
Protective factors at the community and societal level have been less studied than protective factors at the individual and relationship level. Factors that appear to buffer against the risk of violence include coordination of resources and services among community agencies, access to mental health and substance abuse services, and community support and connectedness.
Adverse Childhood Experiences
Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future youth violence victimization and perpetration. This CDC web page contains related information and resources.
Connecting the Dots: An Overview of the Links Among Multiple Forms of Violence
A briefing document published by CDC in 2014 to share research on the connections between different forms of violence and describe how these connections affect communities.
Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: A Technical Package for Policy, Norm, and Programmatic Activities
This technical package (PDF, 52 pages) from the CDC includes a select group of strategies based on the best available evidence to help prevent child abuse and neglect. Communities and states can use this resource as they prioritize child abuse and neglect prevention activities.
Protective Factors Against Delinquency
A literature review funded by OJJDP, published in 2015.
Risk Factors for Delinquency
A literature review funded by OJJDP, published in 2015.
Youth Violence: Risk and Protective Factors
A CDC web page that lists some of the known risk and protective factors for youth violence.
