November 9, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Psychology will receive a five-year, $5.7 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the causes of youth violence and the optimal interventions to reduce it.

UAB was one of 48 applicants that competed for the award. UAB and four other universities — Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins and the University of Hawaii — received the grants to establish five Comprehensive Academic Centers for Excellence in Youth Violence. A common focus of the five centers will be to foster collaborations between academic researchers and communities to reduce youth violence.

“These universities were selected because of their capacity to apply their findings, and they are distinguished by broad community support,” said Rodney Hammond, Ph.D., director of the Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. “This innovative combination of academic excellence and community application offers our nation a unique opportunity to train tomorrow’s community leaders to intervene to prevent the further growth of violence among our nation’s young people.”

The Comprehensive Academic Center for Excellence in Youth Violence at UAB, under the direction of psychologist Michael Windle, Ph.D., and in collaboration with the University of Alabama, will receive $1.02 million in the first year. The funds will support two large studies and four pilot studies, including one study to examine the risk factors for violent behaviors in children and teenagers in Birmingham and Jefferson County and to develop effective violence prevention programs.

“Although in recent years homicide rates among youth in the United States have decreased, homicide remains the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds, and the United States has the highest homicide rate for young people among industrialized countries,” Windle said.

Researchers at the UAB center will develop a statewide surveillance system to monitor youths who enter hospital emergency departments with injuries due to violence. They also will develop screening systems to help health care workers, school counselors, educators and others identify children who are at-risk for committing violence. Other components of the center will involve disseminating information about youth violence to local, state, regional and national sources and promoting violence prevention initiatives that target children at high risk for violent behaviors.

Youth Violence in the United States

• Homicide is the second leading cause of death for persons 15-24 years of age and is the leading cause of death for blacks. In this age group, homicide is the second leading cause of death for Hispanic youths.
  
  
• Between 1985 and 1991, annual homicide rates among males 15-19 years old increased 154 percent — from 13 to 33 per 100,000 — surpassing the rates of youths in the 25-29 and 30-34 year age groups.
  
  
• In 1997, 6,146 young people, 15-24 years old, were victims of homicide. This amounts to an average of 17 youth homicide victims per day in the United States.
  
  
• In 1997, 5.9 percent of students in a national survey reported carrying a firearm at least once in the previous 30 days.
  
  
• Nationwide, 4 percent of students had missed one or more days of school during the 30 days preceding the survey because they had felt unsafe at school or when traveling to or from school.
  
  
• Nationwide, the prevalence of students who had been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property one or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey was 7.4 percent.
  
  
• Nationwide, 14.8 percent of students had been in a physical fight on school property one or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 1997 CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey