by Marnie Eisenstadt
Syracuse
November 25, 2024

… It may feel like a wide wave of teens is behind the break-ins and car thefts, but it’s a relatively small group of youth committing the same crimes over and over, according to the data. … Juvenile crime overall dropped when Raise the Age started. But car thefts and burglaries have skyrocketed. Police say teens are driving this trend. Some of it is not reflected in the data because police make arrests in fewer than 20% of the car thefts.

… Jeffrey Butts, a John Jay College professor who has spent his career researching juvenile justice, said the problem is too wrapped up in politics and rhetoric. What it really needs is thoughtfulness and nuance. But instead, liberals are staked out on one side: It’s always bad to crack down on kids. Conservatives are on the other: We need to crack down on every kid. The solutions are in the middle, and they’re not one-size-fits-all, Butts said.

Detention is not a useful long-term solution. Really getting teens to turn around requires giving them other, better opportunities that will keep them from ever stealing that car, or picking up that gun because they were never there in the first place. They were playing music, or sports, or learning a skill. But when kids get into trouble, especially when it involves guns, detention can be helpful. “But as soon as you hear a 13-year-old with a handgun, or 15-year-old in a car with others with guns, that’s an emergency situation,” Butts said. “You do need to separate those young people from … their ability to move about freely.”

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