Trends in Juvenile Shooting Victims 2020 – 2022 Indianapolis, Indiana.

Abstract

BACKGROUND There is growing community concern over the number of juvenile shooting victims in Indianapolis. OBJECTIVE Examine trends in juvenile (<18 years of age) shooting victims between January 1, 2020 –October 31, 2022. KEY FINDINGS There were a total of 119 juvenile firearm injury victims. 28.6% were fatal and 71.4% were nonfatal victims. Juvenile victims account for 7% of overall firearm violence. In 2020, the average juvenile victim age was 13.6 with a range of 10 months to 17 years old. In 2021, the average age was 12.8 with a range of 2 to 17 years old. In 2022, the average age was 14.1 with a range of 2 to 17 years old. Juvenile victims accounted for 25% of firearm injury fatalities reported in March 2020 and August 2022. They accounted for 22.22% of firearm injury fatalities in March 2022. There was a 10% increase in reported juvenile shootings from 2020 to 2021, with 40 shootings in 2020 and 44 in 2021. There was not a year-over-year increase in juvenile shootings from 2021 to 2022. Both years saw a total of 36 reported juvenile shootings occur from January to October of the respective years. Many reports of non-fatal shootings do not include the victim’s age; thus, it is possible that these findings underrepresent the true number of non-fatal juvenile shootings