The Young and the Ruthless

The Young and the Ruthless

The Young and the Ruthless

Jan. 17, 2001 (Washington) -- At age 17, Gilbert Salinas was shot in the stomach while struggling to take a gun away from one of his drunken friends. Salinas awoke 26 days later from a coma only to discover that his legs were paralyzed and that he would spend the remainder of his life in a wheelchair.

"It was the result of someone having a weapon at the wrong time," Salinas tells WebMD.

Nine years later, Salinas now serves as director of a teen violence prevention program in Los Angeles. But while the rate of serious youth crimes has declined substantially since Salinas was shot -- due, in large part, to a decrease in the use of firearms by American youths -- a new report indicates that the propensity for this type of violent behavior remains the same.

According to the report, while the youth homicide, robbery, and arrest rates have declined significantly since 1983 -- when an unprecedented surge of teenage violence began plaguing the U.S. -- the arrest rate for aggravated assaults is still 70% higher now. In addition, confidential reports from American youth suggest that the portion of young people involved in violent behavior has not declined since the mid-1990s, when youth violence in the U.S. reached its peak.

The report was compiled by the surgeon general's office in response to the Columbine High School shooting that took place in April 1999 and resulted in 13 deaths.

The new data demonstrate that "this is no time to become complacent. Otherwise, we could see a return to the peak," says Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, who released the report at a news conference Wednesday.

But Satcher stresses that the new report does not support getting tough with juvenile offenders and, at times, treating them like adult offenders. Instead, he says, it shows that prevention programs tailored to meet the individual needs of each child are far more successful.

"The fact is that young people transferred to adult criminal courts have a much higher risk of re-offending," Satcher says.

Among the successful intervention programs outlined in the report are skills, parent, and behavioral training. Programs that inherently fail to work include peer counseling, gun buybacks, and boot camps.