The 10 leading causes of death among young men are accidents, homicide, suicide, AIDS, cancer, heart disease, pneumonia and influenza, cirrhosis of the liver, congenital abnormalities, and stroke. The life expectancy of an American male has declined in recent years. A young African American man can look forward to a life span eight years shorter than his white counterpart. The motor-vehicle death rate is highest among males 15 to 24 years old. Nearly two-thirds of all murders are among males 15 to 24 years old.
Young men commit suicide five times as often as young women.
Two-thirds of the 12 million new cases of sexually transmitted disease each year occur in people under 25, and a quarter of them are in teenagers. Between 1992 and 1994 the percentage of males 12 to 17 years old who reported that marijuana was easy for them to get increased from 51 to 59 percent. The perception that using illicit drugs poses a great risk has declined since 1992 among males 12 to 17 years old. Unlike the trend with older adults, cigarette smoking is increasing among youths 12 to 15 years old.