Youth violence
“Why do the same neglected neighbourhoods around the world keep losing their young men to violence?”
Root causes (expand to see solutions)
Community violence is not spread evenly. It concentrates, again and again, on young men in a handful of the poorest, most neglected neighbourhoods.
What's at stake
Children who witness violence carry trauma for life, while violence-ridden neighbourhoods bleed jobs and investment.
In Central America, families flee gang violence toward the United States, feeding a migration debate thousands of miles from where it started.
The global picture
Central America
High severity
Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have some of the world's highest murder rates, with gangs known as maras controlling entire neighbourhoods.
Community and gang violence also grips cities across the Caribbean, South Asia and West Africa, and Russia has among the world's higher homicide rates.