In recent times, New York City has witnessed a significant dip in engaging crime rates, including fewer shootings and homicides. However, one demographic that seems immune to this positive trend is the city’s youthful population, which has raised concerning issues with juvenile delinquency in recent years. Jessica Tisch, NYPD Commissioner, reported earlier this year that the quantity of juvenile perpetrators skyrocketed almost 200%, and the count of underage shooting victims surged beyond 80% from 2018 to 2024. The loss of 14-year-old Angel Mendoza in a fatal attack in the same week adds an unfortunate datapoint to this troubling situation.
Angel, a ninth grader, was subjected to a ruthless attack in a Bronx park by a group of teenage delinquents, two of whom were underage. Angel’s victimizers were alleged to have horrifyingly assaulted him with a firearm, brutally beat him, and eventually stabbed him to death—an incident caught entirely on video. These heart-rending episodes of fatal adolescent-on-adolescent violence rise to the surface despite an observable decrease in overall crime rates in the city. It begs the question—why is there an upward trend in youth violence during a period of overall crime rate decline?
The 2017 ‘Raise The Age’ statute in New York, enacted by former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who also shuttered numerous juvenile detention facilities during his term, might provide some context for the increase. This law significantly reduced the chance that 16- and 17-year-old violators would receive appropriate jail sentences for serious felonies. It increased the frequency with which these cases were forwarded to Family Court, leading to fewer juvenile offenders behing held accountable for their actions.
A study from the Manhattan Institute in 2023 found that by September 2022, 83% of felonies involving 16- to 17-year-old perpetrators ended up in Family Court. It also indicated that 75% of non-drug related Class A felonies—considered the most serious crime category, were diverted there as well. The New York City Criminal Justice Agency discovered in 2021 that the city experienced a significant increase in rearrests among the juvenile ‘Raise The Age’ beneficiaries in the law’s first year of implementation.
However, state legislators seem hesitant to revisit this law, despite the surge in repeat offences among juveniles. Advocates of decarceration frequently argue in defense of this law that a minor’s age should always be considered a mitigating factor due to incomplete brain development. They posit that it is unfair for adolescents to be held entirely accountable for criminal behavior because their brains have not fully matured.
Yet, this argument doesn’t hold water when we consider that most American teenagers aren’t engaging in violent crime, such as committing assaults in public parks or carjacking. Thus, the logic to lessen punishments due to age becomes less convincing. It’s also a known statistical fact that younger lawbreakers offend again more frequently than their older counterparts. This fact simultaneously raises concerns about potential incentives for gang members to draw younger individuals into their groups, who now face fewer consequences than they would have a decade ago.
The existing data on criminal justice reforms indicate that the population intended to benefit from the ‘Raise The Age’ law—adolescents—generally suffer more in the aftermath of the enactment of this law. A report by the Manhattan Institute in 2023 demonstrated that juveniles were three times more likely to fall victim to gun violence than they were five years before. Such findings certainly raise questions about the effectiveness of these reforms.
Another discomforting thought to consider is whether proponents of these policies would still stand by their advocacies if underage adolescents, impelled by their ‘undeveloped brains’ towards violent impulses, roamed their own neighborhoods. Would they tolerate this in sake of defending the laws they believe in? If their sentiment would be otherwise, it’s then perturbing to see why it would be acceptable in neighborhoods like the Bronx.
The post New York City Witnessing an Unsettling Rise in Juvenile Crime Rates appeared first on Real News Now.
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