ABSTRACT
Several countries documented a decrease in youth homicide victimization (0–19 years) in recent decades. As was the case with the international homicide decline – when countries experienced declines in their overall homicide rates, possibly attributed to the aging of their populations – it is very likely that this decline in youth violence also has international trends and drivers. If so, this internationality would suggest that the decline in youth violence is not tied to policies of particular countries, but to phenomena affecting the world. The present study advances this investigation by generating trends in youth homicide in countries with available data. Furthermore, longitudinal analysis is used to explore the extent to which cross-national predictors of general homicide trends also predict changes in youth victimization rates. Findings show remarkably similar homicide trends across age groups, suggesting that the social forces driving homicides tend to affect all groups in a country, regardless of their age. However, results also show that youth (ages 0–19) in particular is a very heterogeneous age group, with clear differences between infants relative to teenagers, which require specific analysis and explanations. I discuss these findings in light of current research.
