Interaction Of Nature And Nurture In Congenital Birth Defects

San Diego is most known for its glorious weather and gorgeous beaches. But if one digs a little deeper one will see it includes another version that not many may know of. Youth represent one factor of the population being severely affected by this not so picture-perfect San Diego. One of the problems youth are having is in school, including truancy and dropping out. The following will address some of the statistics found regarding youth.

San Diego had a total of 15,527 students chronically absent. 76.90% of these being minority students. The annual dropout rate was 2.1% for grades 9-12. One reason could be due to the other problem of youth getting involved in gangs. In fact, 90% of youth started their involvement in gang activity by age 14 or younger. The median age of involvement was just 12 years old. With affiliation in gangs comes youth committing crimes and coming to be a part of the juvenile justice system. When it comes to the racial composition of juvenile arrests with gang affiliation, it is as follows: 56% Hispanic, 18% White, 18% Black and 8% Other. 45% of crimes committed by juveniles with gang association were tagging/graffiti. Following behind this, 44% for robbing people and 41% for petty theft/burglary. But, youth in the juvenile justice system is not limited to youth with gang affiliation.

Youth in general equally has justice involvement. Juveniles arrested with gang connections differ from other juvenile arrests with no gang affiliation. 90% of juveniles with gang affiliation had prior arrests compared to 64% juveniles with no gang affiliation. 49% of juveniles with gang involvement had brought a weapon to school compared to juveniles with no gang involvement being 15%. 67% of parents had prior arrests when it came to juvenile arrestees with gang participation compared to 40% of other arrestees with no gang participation. 54% of juvenile arrestees with gang association sold drugs, whereas 23% of juveniles with no gang association.

The shocking truth is that juveniles that have gangs ties produce more significant percentages when compared to arrestees who have no gang ties. When comparing juveniles to adults, juvenile arrests were lower and were arrested for different offenses. Juveniles were arrested for offenses ranging from 8% violent, 11% property, 3% alcohol/drugs and 16% weapons. Altogether, in 2016 a total of 5,457 juveniles were arrested. Broken down 1,319 of juveniles were arrested for felonies, 3,342 for misdemeanors and 796 for status offenses. Recently, homelessness and poverty in San Diego have gained attention. San Diego’s overall poverty rate is 14.0%. 23.50% of students chronically absent was a population living in poverty from ages 5-17. Broken down the poverty ratio varies from 46.6% being White, 33.4% Hispanic. 8.2% Asian, 5.3% Black, 1.2% Native, and 5.3% Other.