Fear of violence made a fifth of children miss school at least once in the last year, a survey by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) suggests.
Results from the survey of over 7,500 children indicate 16% of children aged 13-17 have been a victim of violence.
The children's commissioner said knife crime and violence was the "number one issue" raised with her by young people.
A government spokesperson said it was providing targeted support to areas with the highest levels of violence.
For Jibril Rose, now 19, school was "perfectly fine" but things got "a bit dangerous" when he headed home.
"I grew up in North London and there was a lot of gang culture there, gang rules there, so I had to go certain routes home to avoid hotspots," he said.
Understanding experiences like Mr Rose's is at the heart of the work done by YEF, a charitable trust formed in 2019 with a £200m Home Office endowment to help prevent youth violence.
Its executive director, Jon Yates, said: "One of the most important things that we need to do as adults is understand what's going on in the lives of our children in this country."
