By Yunsoo Park, D.C. Policy Center, March 3, 2020
In D.C., a large share of children and youth up to age 17 are likely to be exposed to traumatic events: 21.3 percent have been exposed to an adverse childhood experience (ACE), including an estimated 9 percent who have been a victim or witness to neighborhood violence. Community violence is a common example of childhood adversity, which is a broad umbrella term for a range of circumstances that pose a serious threat to a child’s behavioral and mental well-being. Community violence often happens without warning, which can cause feelings of sudden, horrifying shock and loss of control and safety. It involves intentional acts to harm others, which can lead to feelings of extreme mistrust of others and powerlessness.
Some students are likely to be directly or indirectly affected by community violence in D.C., where the number of homicides increased to 166 in 2019, up by four percent over the previous year. Some neighborhoods have very high numbers of both homicides and public school students: the Congress Heights, Bellevue, and Washington Highlands neighborhoods had 25 homicides in 2019 and almost 8,000 public school students attending their schools. And that year, an estimated 19 shootings took place during the day within a block of a public school in D.C.
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