@article{ref1,
title="The epidemiology of homicide perpetration by children",
journal="Injury epidemiology",
year="2017",
author="Hemenway, David A. and Solnick, Sara J.",
volume="4",
number="1",
pages="e5-e5",
abstract="BACKGROUND: The United States has by far the highest rates of homicide perpetration among high-income countries. The perpetration of homicide by children is often newsworthy, but little is known about the incidence or the circumstances of child homicide perpetration. <br><br>METHODS: We use data from the sixteen states reporting to the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) for all years 2005-2012. We read every violent death report that was classified a homicide with a child suspect (aged 0-14). To help ensure that we did not miss any homicide cases we also read those classified as an other-inflicted unintentional firearm injury death with a child shooter, to determine if they were actually homicides. <br><br>RESULTS: There were 154 child suspects, which corresponds to an average annual rate of 1.2 child perpetrators per million child population. We estimate for the United States as a whole, 74 children per year were homicide perpetrators. Nearly 90% were boys, 79% were aged 13-14, and another 13% were aged 11-12. We created five categories, which accounted for over 70% of events with sufficient information to determine what happened: (1) The caretaker, a juvenile, typically an older brother, is given the responsibility to care for an infant. The homicide usually occurs in a residence, and blunt force is used (no guns); (2) Killing an adult family member, typically a parent or grandparent. These cases usually occur in a residence, and the child uses either a gun or a knife; (3) Impulsive shooting during play, the child typically shoots a sibling or friend. Except for some notion of momentary anger, these cases look much like unintentional firearm fatalities; (4) Robbery, a group of youth are trying to steal money, usually from an adult; and (5) Group Assault, a group of youth are fighting, usually other youth. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Child homicide perpetrators are typically boys who use guns, and the events can be classified into a small number of relevant categories. Such a categorization of events is useful for understanding the problem and determining solutions.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2197-1714",
doi="10.1186/s40621-017-0102-2",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40621-017-0102-2"
}