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Youth-Related Homicide Rate Falls to a 30-Year Low

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Jul 11, 2013 04:33 PM EDT

Although fighting crime and preventing it from starting can be difficult tasks, the police force in the United States can have something to celebrate for now. According to new government statistics, the homicide rate for people between the ages of 10 and 24 has finally hit a 30-year low. These numbers are reporting 2010 statistics that suggest that crimes resulting in youth fatalities are falling steadily.

The report, presented by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that the drop in homicide rate for youth was applicable for all ages, races and ethnic groups. According to the numbers, the overall rate was 7.5 deaths for every 100,000 people within the age group in 2010. This means that around 4,828 people from the age range of 10 to 24 are killed a year. This rate is the lowest recorded rate since 1981.

"We are very pleased to see a promising decline that began in 1994 and has continued so that in 2010 we reached a 30-year low," Corinne Ferdon, a behavioral scientist with the CDC and lead author of the report said according to USA Today. "Even though we have seen this promising decline, youth homicide is still among the top three leading causes of death for our young people. This age group is disproportionally affected by it - about 13 young people die every day from homicide."

Over the course of three decades, the researchers found that around 80 percent of the fatalities had to do with firearms. This rate has declined slightly but more needs to be done to stop gun-related violence between youths. Aside from finding a decline across all factors, the researchers stated that even though the homicide rate for the high-risk group of young African American males has declined, it has fallen at a much slower rate.

Homicide is currently just before car accidents and suicides on the list of leading causes of death in young people. The findings were published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.  

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