Communities in Focus

PCVPC Communities in Focus

PCVPC seeks to understand and address the causes and consequences of youth violence in underprivileged, urban areas. Our efforts focus on participating in direct interventions within the specific neighborhoods of West and Southwest Philadelphia, where high levels of crime and violence directly affect youth and also interfere with healthy development. These direct interventions are conducted in conjunction with the communities of Cobbs Creek, Haddington, and Kingsessing.

Community Feature
The Art of Violence Prevention – Photo/Drawing Contest

Community Issue Brief
PCVPC's newsletter offers a brief update on the communities with which it is currently working.

Quick Facts on West and Southwest Philadelphia

The reported robbery rate is five times the national average.¹
Juvenile arrests for drug-related offenses average 550 per year.
Over 10,000 aggravated assaults occurred in the first half of the decade, 40 percent were committed with firearms.²
- The remaining areas in Philadelphia have a 23 percent lower gun assault rate.²
Youth are especially at risk, with 43 percent of the population under age 25.²
From 2000 to 2004, police responded to more than 400 school assaults each year.²
An average of 30 youth homicides and 240 young gunshot wounds occur each year.
The average annual youth homicide rate (ages 5-24) is 37/100,000.
- This is five times the national rate of 7/100,000.²
- This is higher than the city's total rate of 31/100,000.³
The rate of reported assaults inside public schools has declined by 14 percent over the past school year.⁴
There has been a 14 percent increase in the number of city supported after- school and youth development programs.⁴
- There are now 48,263 of these programs throughout Philadelphia.⁴
The school dropout rate has decreased by 8.2 percent since the 1999 to 2000 school year.⁴
The number of development investment opportunities for youth throughout Philadelphia increased by 14 percent from 2006 to 2007, with a six-fold increase during the 1999-2000 fiscal year.⁴

Statistics on Violence

Philadelphia Safe and Sound 2007 Annual Report Card:
View PDF

WISQARS:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/

CDC Youth Violence
These sites provide statistics, protective factors, and risk factors for youth involved with violence:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/yvfacts.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/YV_DataSheet.pdf

CDC Reports the Consequences of Youth Violence
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/YVP/YVP-conque.htm

Cartographic Modeling Lab
This website provides statistics on a wide range of topics including violence. The statistics are categorized by neighborhood.
http://cml.upenn.edu/

1) CrimeBase. Cartographic Modeling Lab. (Accessed at http://www.cml.upenn.edu)

2) Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System Injury Mortality Report. (Accessed at http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html)

3) Philadelphia Safe and Sound. Community Report Card: Philadelphia Safe and Sound; 2006

4) Philadelphia Safe and Sound 2007 Report Card, The Well-Being of Children and Youth in Philadelphia; Philadelphia Safe and Sound; 2007 (Accessed at http://www.philasafesound.org/pdf/RC07.pdf)