Rise in Juvenile Felony Robberies Could Presage Increase in Other Crime
Juveniles are getting arrested for felony robberies at a rapidly rising rate, the latest police statistics show. Some experts believe the data shows a need for the city to focus more resources on after-school and work placement programs for residents under the age of 16.
About 6.7% more juveniles — nearly 90% of them boys — have been arrested for robbery this year through September 30 compared with the same period last year. There was an even more dramatic increase between 2004 and 2005, when juvenile arrests rose by 26.6%, to 2,814 from 2,222.
The New York Police Department's deputy commissioner of strategic initiatives, Michael Farrell, said the rise starting in 2005 was due largely to an increase in the number of robberies of iPods, cellular phones, and other portable electronic devices.
New York City has appeared to be immune to the more dire national crime trends over the last several years. While the FBI's uniform crime reports show violent crime rising about 2.3% nationally, New York's murder rate has increased only slightly, and other major crimes have dropped versus last year, CompStat reports show.
The latest data show that the city's juvenile population is more in line with problems seen in other major metropolitan cities, such as Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, and Boston. The number of juveniles arrested for robbery in Boston increased by 54% between 2004 and 2005.
Police officials in those cities have said the number of juvenile arrests for robbery and assault have increased alongside gang activity and weapons possession. The NYPD recently testified at a City Council hearing that the estimated number of gang members in the city has increased to 15,000 from 12,000.
While more modest than other cities, the rise in New York City is worrying, experts said. Juvenile crime is watched closely because spikes have sometimes preceded larger crime trends, the president of the Citizen's Crime Commission, Richard Aborn, said.
"This obviously is an area that the city needs to address," he said. "Rapidly rising juvenile crime today will mean rapidly rising adult crime tomorrow."
Statistics from other city agencies show that more juveniles are spending time in secure detention centers and being charged with juvenile delinquency.
Alongside a 13.7% increase in the number of juveniles admitted to secure facilities maintained by the Department of Juvenile Justice between fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2006, there have been 127 more instances of youth-on-youth assaults, a 39.1% increase. The number of juvenile delinquency filings in the Family Court Division rose to 6,259 in 2005 from 5,379 in 2004. There were 4,828 filings in 2001, according to data acquired from the city's law department.
A community re-entry coordinator at the Children's Aid Society, Lance Johnsonn, said the thin job market and reduced funding for summer youth programs are pushing the robbery rates higher.
"When it's hard to get a job, they'll get caught up on a robbery charge," he said. "The iPods and cell phones, those are easy things to sell on the street."
Allan Luks, the executive director of a youth support organization, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, said the rising crime rate for youths also linked up with the high school dropout rate in the city.
"Social disconnectedness is affecting our entire society," he said. "For poor youths, with the very significantly high drop-out rate, single-parent homes, onslaught of the media, television, and movies … this is a generation where you worry first and foremost about yourself. When you have all that, you are left with the values of the street."
Gang involvement, he said, is a way for youths to feel needed and a sense of belonging. His organization tries to show troubled youths that involvement with greater society can give the same things, he said.
While robberies spiral higher for juveniles, the number of juvenile arrests for murder has increased to 32 from 28 between 2004 and 2005. Arrests for rape, burglary, grand larceny auto, and assault have decreased. Grand larcenies increased to 492 in 2005 from 380 in 2004.
Mayor Bloomberg said in radio interview on 1010WINS in October that the rising juvenile crime rate was "worrisome."
"That's why you focus on the schools," he said. He said he had heard stories from officials that youths were trying to smuggle brass knuckles, handguns, and box cutters onto school grounds.
The mayor touted statistics showing that citywide crime in schools was down 7% since the start of the Impact program in April 2003.
The director of the New School's Center for City Affairs, Andrew White, said the city needs to focus more on social welfare programs for youths.
"It's a little disturbing to me that we don't have a better way of dealing with younger teens as they are struggling in schools and getting ready to drop out," he said.
