This monograph summarizes what is known about youth and violence, identifying 10 myths that confound people's understanding of the real causes of youth violence. It focuses on: what contributes to youth violence (e.g., children exposed to domestic violence are at risk of using violence, children and adolescents use guns when they are easily…

There were 2.7 million incidents of child abuse or neglect reported to authorities in one year. Between 1986 and 1992, the total number of children killed by firearms rose by 144 percent. A 1990 survey of inner-city young people in Baltimore found one in four teenagers had witnessed a murder and three in four knew someone who had been shot. What…