Reuters reported June 6 that researchers tracked 1,829 youths ages 10 to 19 who had been held at the Cook County (Chicago) Juvenile Temporary Detention Center over a period of eight years. They found that as of March 2004, 65 had died between the ages of 15 and 24.

Almost all of the deaths were violent and involved guns. The overall death rate was four times that among other youths of the same age; among girls who had been held in juvenile detention, the death rate was eight times higher than among other girls.

The leading cause of death among other youth was accidents, not violent crime.

"We need to get away from the stereotype that delinquent youth are just bad kids," said lead researcher Linda Teplin of Northwestern University. "They are a group of young people who are especially vulnerable to early and violent deaths."

Teplin said that health professionals need to address the issue of violence when dealing with urban youth in general, and delinquent youth in particular.

The study was published in the June 2005 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

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