Why We Can’t Wait: A Youth Data Portrait on Safe Communities

 

>> Back to a #WhyWeCantWait

Title slide of A New Deal for Youth Data Portrait Safe Communities

Black children account for 15 percent of United States public school students, but 35 percent of school arrests.Black and AIAN children are referred to law enforcement in school at more than double the rate of white children.Black, AIAN, and NHPI children are arrested in school at more than 3x the rate of white children.Public investments in workforce development and training have fallen in the last 50 years, while funding for police has skyrocketed.young black men disproportionately make up police arrests.From 2016-2018, Hispanic young men increasingly died because of law enforcement intervention. Black young men are the most likely to die because of law enforcement intervention.Between 2016 and 2018, young women’s rates of non-fatal self-harm increased more than 7%.Deaths by suicide increased for Black and Hispanic young men between 2016 and 2018.Young people in Black and Native communities experience high rates of homicide.

We can’t wait for safe communities. It is time for a New Deal for Youth that responds to the historic roots and current scale of the crisis. When the current, once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe is over, our future as a nation will depend on how intentionally we invest in this generation.

>> Next Section: 2021 Data Update