The number of violent crimes reported to Victim Support which involved young victims has doubled in recent months, according to the organisation.
Victim Support was asked for its help by relatives in the case of 18 people under 25 who were violently killed in the first six months of this year. This compared with a figure of 8 for the same period last year.
In the case of sexual crime, 61 young victims sought help from Victim Support in the same period compared with 37 cases in the first six months of 2002.
Ms Geraldine Byrne, who runs Victim Support's youth awareness programme, said there were "many, many factors" for this increase in violence among young people.
Nor was it confined to this State. Research by Victim Support UK showed that 25 per cent of 12-16 year-olds had been victims of crime in the past year.
She said young people were under enormous pressure and parents had to ask themselves if they spent enough time paying attention to their children.
"We are all very busy but we have a huge responsibility to spend time with our children," Ms Byrne said. "We have to ask ourselves if we give our children enough time. Do we really listen to them?"
She was speaking in advance of the first ever European Youth Forum on Crime and Safety, which will open in St Patrick's Training College, Drumcondra on Saturday morning.
More than 200 young people from the UK, France, Northern Ireland and this State will take part in the forum, and will outline their experiences of crime.
Ms Byrne said it was telling that the most sought-after workshop at the forum was the workshop on aggression and behavioural issues.
The second most popular workshop was crime and safety on the streets.
Mr Mat Crozier, a young men and violence project worker with Youth Action Northern Ireland, will host the workshop on male aggression. He said young men were often the butt of criticism from the media and public for their behaviour, yet the reasons for that behaviour were never analysed.
During 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, men under 25 accounted for 95 per cent of prisoners. Some 36 per cent of people killed in the Northern Ireland conflict were young men, Mr Crozier said. Yet the reasons for their involvement in such violence were seldom examined.
One in four young men in Britain had been convicted of a crime by the time they reached 25, he said. This pattern was likely to be repeated in cities such as Dublin and Belfast.
Young men were under enormous pressure to conform to masculine roles and were discouraged from expressing their emotions, Mr Crozier said. They seldom got the opportunity to examine why they resorted to violence. He said he hoped the weekend forum would provide a sounding board for young people who wanted answers to these questions.
