Reducing teenage murder

The USA has a teenage murder rate seven times higher than any West European nation. Altogether, over 3,000 teenagers (15 to 19) were murdered in the USA in 1991, as opposed to fewer than 300 in the whole of Western Europe. The annual homicide rate from 1990 to 1991 in the USA was 16.9 per 100,000 people aged 15 to 19, compared to 1 per 100,000 in Ireland. After the USA, the next eight places in the teenage murder league are occupied by former Soviet Republics, including the Russian Federation with an annual homicide rate from 1990 to 1991 of 10.2 per 100,000 people aged 15 to 19. The rate has doubled in Bulgaria, Canada, and the USA, and tripled in Italy. Most teen murder victims are male.

In five countries, including Japan and the UK, the teenage murder rate has dropped over the last two decades.