Statistics

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General
Catastrophic Events
Child Abuse and Neglect
Community Violence

Domestic Violence
School Violence
Violence in the Media

General

Studies show that child abuse occurs in 30-60% of family violence cases that involve families with children. (Carter LS. Weithorn LA. Behrman RE. Domestic violence and children: analysis and recommendations. The Future of Children. 9(3):4-20, 1999 Winter.)
Approximately 4 million adolescents have been victims of a serious physical assault, and 9 million have witnessed serious violence during their lifetimes. (Kilpatrick D. Saunders B. . Washington DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, 1997 pdf )
Every year, 3 to 10 million children witness domestic violence. (Carter LS. Weithorn LA. Behrman RE. Domestic violence and children: analysis and recommendations. The Future of Children. 9(3):4-20, 1999 Winter.)
1 in 12 High Schoolers is threatened or injured with a weapon each year. (OJJDP, Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report, 1999)
In New Haven, CT, 39% of 6th, 8th, and 10th grade students had seen someone shot at in the preceding year. (Schwab-Stone M. Chen C. Greenberger E. Silver D. Lichtman J. Voyce C. No safe haven II: the effects of violence exposure on urban youth. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 38(4):359-367, 1999, Apr.)
In Miami, FL, more than 90% of the high school students witnessed community violence and 44% had been a victim of a violent crime. (Berman S. Kurtines W. Silverman W. Serafini L. The impact of exposure to crime and violence on urban youth. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 66(3): 329-36, 1996, Jul.)
In Richmond, VA, 88% of the children in one neighborhood heard gunfire near home, and 25% saw someone killed. (Kliewer W. Lepore S. Oskin D. Johnson P. The role of social and cognitive processes in children's adjustment to community violence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66(1):199-209, 1998.)

Catastrophic Events

In the United States alone from 1996 to 1998 there were more than 5 million children exposed to some form of severe traumatic event such as physical abuse, domestic and community violence, motor vehicle accidents, chronic painful medical procedures and natural disasters (Perry, B.D. Traumatized children: how childhood trauma influences brain development. Journal of the California Alliance for the Mentally Ill 11(1): 48-51, 2000)
Twenty million (or more) children with PTSD are among the least understood, under-studied and inconsistently served groups in the United States. (Perry, B.D. Traumatized children: how childhood trauma influences brain development. Journal of the California Alliance for the Mentally Ill 11(1): 48-51, 2000)
Rates of PTSD identified in childhood range from 2 percent after a natural disaster (tornado), 28% after an episode of terrorism (mass shooting), and 29 % after a plane crash (Smith EM, North CS, Spitznagel EL, Post-traumatic stress in survivors of three disasters. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 8(5): 353-68, 1993.)
26.5 % of New York City public school students were suffering from at least one mental health problem in 2002 as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks. (Applied Research and Consulting LLC, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and New York State Psychiatric Institute. Effects of the World Trade Center attack on New York City Public School students: Initial report to the New York City Board of Education (May 6, 2002) pdf)
Among an estimated 10.5% (75,000) of students suffering from symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder six months after 9/11, including children who were not directly affected by the event, the prevalence of stress was higher among children who spent more time learning about the attacks from TV than children who spent less time. (Applied Research and Consulting LLC, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and New York State Psychiatric Institute. Effects of the World Trade Center attack on New York City Public School students: Initial report to the New York City Board of Education (May 6, 2002) pdf)

Child Abuse and Neglect

Child abuse is 15 times more likely to occur in families where domestic violence is present. (Stacy, W. and Shupe, A. The Family Secret. Boston, MA. Beacon Press, 1983.)
Twenty-eight babies and toddlers were killed with a gun in 2000. (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2000)
77 % of all the children who died from abuse and neglect were younger than 4 years of age (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, 2002)
An estimated 896,000 children were determined to be victims of child abuse or neglect in 2002. The rate of victimization per 1,000 children in the national population has dropped from 13.4 children in 1990 to 12.3 children in 2002. (Child Maltreatment 2002: Summary of Key Findings)
For 2002, an estimated 1,400 children died due to abuse or neglect. Three-quarters (76 percent) of children who were killed were younger than 4 years old; 12 percent were 4 to 7 years old; 6 percent were 8 to 11 years old; and 6 percent were 12 to 17 years old. (Child Maltreatment 2002: Summary of Key Findings)
Being abused or neglected as a child increases the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 53 percent and of arrest for a violent crime as an adult by 38 percent. (An Update on the Cycle of Violence, February 2001 pdf)

Community Violence

A comparison of delinquent and non-delinquent youth found that a history of family violence or abuse is the most significant difference between the two groups (Miller, G. "Violence By and Against America's Children," Journal of Juvenile Justice Digest, XVII(12) p.6. 1989)
In 2001, 5.5 % of youth between the ages of 12 and 15 and 5.6% of youth between the ages of 16 and 19 reported being victims of violent crime during the year. (Violence in the Lives of Children. Cross Currents Issue 1, August 2003. Child Trends DataBank. pdf)
• According to the United States Department of Justice, law enforcement agencies arrested approximately 2.8 million juveniles in 1997. Of that number, 2,500 were arrested for murder and 121,000 for other violent crimes. Juveniles accounted for 19% of all arrests, 14% of murder arrests, and 17% of all violent crime arrests. (OJJDP, Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report, 1999)
In 2001, the National Center for Health Statistics listed homicide as the fourth leading cause of death for children ages 1 through 4, fourth for youth ages 5 through 14, and second for persons ages 15 through 24. (National Center for Health Statistics. Death and Death Rates by Leading Causes of Death and Age: 2001.)
The U.S. has the highest rates of childhood homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among industrialized countries. (CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, February 7, 1997, Vol 46, No. 5, Rates of Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm-Related Death Among Children in 26 Industrialized Countries.)
The overall firearm-related death rate among U.S. children aged 15 years or less was nearly 12 times higher than among children in the other 25 industrialized countries combined. (CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, February 7, 1997, Vol. 46, No. 5, Rates of Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm-Related Death Among Children in 26 Industrialized Countries)
16.5% of persons arrested in 2002 were under the age of 18. (FBI, October 2003 Section IV, Table 38)
In 1996, handguns were used to murder 2 people in New Zealand , 15 in Japan , 30 in Great Britain , 106 in Canada , 213 in Germany and 9,390 in the United States . (Legal Community Against Violence, 2000)
Each year an estimated $2.3 billion are spent on medical care for the nation's gunshot victims. Almost half of that sum is paid by U.S. taxpayers. (Legal Community Against Violence, 2000)
Guns in this country cause the death of approximately 12 young people (those 19 years of age and under) each day. The overall firearm-related death rate among children under the age of 15 is nearly 12 times higher than among children in 25 other industrialized countries combined. (Legal Community Against Violence, 2000)

Domestic Violence

Children who witness violence at home display emotional and behavioral disturbances as diverse as withdrawal, low self-esteem, nightmares, and aggression against peers, family members and property. (Peled, E., Jaffe, P.G. & Edleson, J.L. (Eds.) Ending the Cycle of Violence: Community Responses to Children of Battered Women. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 1995.)
Over 3 million children are at risk of exposure to parental violence each year. (Carlson, B.E. "Children's Observations of Interparental Violence" in Edwards, A.R. (ed.). Battered Women and Their Families. New York: Springer. pp. 147-167. 1984).
In a national survey of over 6,000 American families, 50% of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children. (Straus, M.A. & Gelles, R.J. (eds.). Physical violence in American families. New Brunswick, NJ, Transaction Publishers. 1990.)
In 1995, the FBI reported that 27% of all violence occurs in a family setting. (National Incident-Based Reporting System. The Structure of Family Violence: An Analysis of Selected Incidents, 1996 pdf)
Straus and Gelles (1988) have estimated that over 29 million children commit an act of violence against a sibling each year. (Straus, M. & Gelles, R. How violent are American families: estimates from the National Family Violence Resurvey and other studies. In: Hotaling G. et al., (Eds). Family Abuse and Its Consequences: New Directions in Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1988.)
Studies show that child abuse occurs in 30-60% of family violence cases that involve families with children. ("The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering." J.L. Edleson, Violence Against Women, February, 1999.)

School Violence

In a 2003 survey of high school students, 17.1% had carried a weapon to school during the 30 days preceding the survey. (Grunbaum J.A. et al. Youth risk behavior surveillance - United States, 2003. MMWR Surveillance Summaries 2004 May 21;53(2):1-96)
71% of public elementary and secondary schools experienced at least one violent incident during the 1999-2000 school year, according to school principals (Violence in U.S. Public Schools: 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety, October 2003)
In 1999, 12% of 12- through 18- year-old students reported experiencing "any" form of victimization at school. (The Condition of Education 2002 Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics, June 2002.)
In 1999, 12- through 18-year-old students living in urban and suburban locales were equally vulnerable to serious violent crime at school. (Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2001)
In 1999, one in six teachers report having been the victim of violence in or around school. This compares to one in nine teachers in 1994. (The Metropolitan Life Survey of the American Teacher, 1999: Violence in America's Public Schools - Five Years Later, Metropolitan Life, 1999)
Nationwide, 15% of high school students had participated in a physical fight in 1998. (Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1999)
57% of expulsions for bringing firearms to school involved high school students, 33% involved junior/middle school students, and 10% involved elementary school students. (Gun-Free Schools Act Report: School Year 1998-1999, U.S. Department of Education, October 2002)

Violence in the Media

Nearly 3 out 4 eighth graders watch 2+ hours of TV each weekday (Brown, Brett and Bzostek, Sharon. Violence in the Lives of Children. Cross Currents, Issue 1, August 2003. Child Trends DataBank)
60% percent of American households have three or more televisions (Kaiser Family Foundation. Kids and Media Fact Sheet. Revised November 2001)
A third of all 0-6 year-olds (36%) have a TV in their bedroom, more than one in four (27%) have a VCR or DVD, one in ten have a video game player, and 7% have a computer. Thirty percent of 0-3 year-olds have a TV in their room, and 43% of 4-6 year-olds do. (Kaiser Family Foundation. Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers. October 2003)
Young children (ages two through seven) are less exposed to media violence than older children, but data collected in 1999 show that they still spend more than three hours each day watching television and videos. (Kaiser Family Foundation. (1999). Kids and media at the new millennium: a comprehensive analysis of children’s media use.)
The National Television Violence Study found that nearly 2 out of 3 TV programs contained some violence, averaging about 6 violent acts per hour. (Kaiser Family Foundation. Key Facts: TV Violence, Spring 2003.)
Younger children who watched news coverage of the 1991 Persian Gulf War were more disturbed by visual images of planes dropping bombs and people dying, whereas older children and teens were more upset by abstract threats of terrorism and nuclear war or the possibility of the conflict spreading. (Cantor, J., Mares, ML., Oliver, MB. Parents and children’s emotional reactions to TV coverage of the Gulf War. In: Greenberg, B., and Gantz, W. Desert Storm and the Mass Media. Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1993, p. 364-380.)
Children who watch a lot of TV news tend to overestimate the prevalence of crime and may perceive the world to be a more dangerous place than it actually is. (Smith, S. and Wilson, B. (2002). Children’s comprehension of and fear reactions to television news. Media Psychology 4:1-26.)
The amount of time spent playing video games varies by age. On average, 2-7 year olds spend 8 minutes a day, 8-13 year-olds spend 32 minutes a day, and 14-18 year-olds spend 20 minutes a day playing video games. (Kaiser Family Foundation. Key Facts: Children and Video Games, Fall 2002.)
Percentage of television-time children ages 2-7 spend watching alone and unsupervised: 81 (Kaiser Family Foundation, 1999. "Kids and Media @ the New Millennium.")
Average time per week that the American child ages 2-17 spends watching television: 19 hours, 40 minutes (Nielsen Media Research, 2000)
Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70 (Tashman, Billy. "Sorry Ernie, TV Isn't Teaching." New York Times. Nov 12, 1994.)
Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 (Barber, Benjamin. Harper's. Nov 1993: 41)
Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1,023 (Nielsen Media Research, 2000)