Where does your county rank in youth homicide rates?
It may be home to John Steinbeck, Cannery Row and the awesome Big Sur wilderness, but Monterey County has another dark distinction. Monterey also has the highest youth homicide rate in California.
According to a new study released by the Violence Policy Center, Monterey County has the highest homicide victimization rate for Californians ages 10 to 24, followed by San Francisco County, San Joaquin County, Alameda County, and Stanislaus County.
The annual study, Lost Youth: A County-by-County Analysis of 2012 California Homicide Victims Ages 10 to 24, analyzes unpublished data from the California Department of Justice Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) and ranks California’s counties by their homicide victimization rates for young people 10 to 24 years old. It looked at homicide rates among youth 10-24 in California’s 10-largest counties.
Counties with the lowest youth homicide rate include Contra Costa, Tulare and Los Angeles
Statewide, homicide rates are more than three times higher for African American youth than they are for any other ethnic group.
For blacks, the homicide rate dropped from 50.44 per 100,000 to 34.76 per 100,000, a decrease of 31 percent since 2006. For Hispanics, the homicide rate dropped from 15.76 per 100,000 to 9.18 per 100,000, a decrease of 42 percent. For whites, the homicide rate dropped from 3.30 per 100,000 to 1.60 per 100,000, a decrease of 52 percent. And for Asian/Pacific Islanders, the homicide rate dropped from 6.29 per 100,000 to 3.09 per 100,000, a decrease of 51 percent.
