Homicide tops motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among people ages 5 to 29, according to the county’s 2011 numbers, the latest available. The youth homicide rate improved slightly in 2011 after reaching a 15-year high in 2010.
Records at the Georgia Department of Public Health show 208 people in Richmond County between ages 5 and 29 have had their lives cut short at the hands of a killer since 1994.
In 2011, the death toll was 15 victims – a decrease of three from 2010, when Richmond County’s youth homicide rate peaked at 23.5 deaths per 100,000 population. Richmond County’s 2011 rate – 19.6 – is significantly higher than Georgia’s.
Motor vehicle crashes claimed 196 young lives in Richmond County between 1994 and 2011, at a rate of 14 deaths per 100,000 population.
“It’s on the downswing, which is good, but drugs, theft, sexual assault and murder are having a negative effect on our community,” the Rev. Larry Fryer, pastor of Hudson Memorial CME Church in east Augusta, said of the youth homicide rate.
Fryer, a leading advocate for criminal justice reform in Augusta, said efforts by law enforcement, school and community groups to combat juvenile violence might be working. But he cautioned that it is too soon to declare victory.
“We need to help our young people become citizens, rather than criminals,” Fryer said Wednesday, as he conducted his regular walk-through of the Cherry Tree Crossing and Turpin Hill neighborhoods to encourage young men and women and their parents to resist crime and violence.
Georgia’s youth homicide rate reached a 20-year low in 2011– going from 350 killings in 1994 to 256 in 2011, lowering the rate from 13 per 100,000 to 7.4.
via Richmond County’s youth homicide rate down slightly, but still high | The Augusta Chronicle.
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