U.S. youth, particularly colored ones, victimized amid raging violence: article

NEW YORK, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Violent crime has been rising nationally since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many elected officials, policymakers, and media outlets have mistakenly placed the blame on young people, reported the Center for American Progress on Tuesday.

"For far too long, youth have been an easy scapegoat for the rising violence in America," said the report, noting that although the real drivers of this devastating trend are complex and far-reaching, the political motivation to point to a single reason for violent crime has spawned public discourse and policy developments that have harmed generations of youth, and particularly youth of color, for a problem they did not cause.

While the trends in youth arrests are going in the right direction, the data on youth victims of gun violence tell a different story -- gun violence was the leading cause of death among children and teenagers in 2020, according to the report.

"Black youth are 14 times more likely and Hispanic youth are three times more likely than white youth to die as a result of gun violence. Violent crime is the consequence of historic underinvestment in communities of color," said the report.

A comprehensive approach to address crime and violence should direct resources back into communities of color that have been disproportionately affected and where historic divestment has resulted in a lack of proven public health and community safety infrastructure, it added.