Children in Organized Urban Violence: Assessing the 'Protection Gap'

Children can be both objects of exploitation and perpetrators of urban violence. Alarmingly, the death tolls for children in many urban contexts can far exceed those in conventional conflict zones. In Medellín, Colombia every day two children under the age of 18 were killed in urban violence between 2000 and 2001.1 In El Salvador, the homicide rate for children between the ages of 15 and 24 is 92 per 100,000 people.2 In South Africa, over 800 children below the age of 18 were victims of violent homicide in 2008-2009.