Mitchel Lensink lensinkmitchel, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Many recent headlines have stoked fear of a rise in youth crime. Much of this reporting stems from biased conservative media sources and pundits that often call for a return to outdated responses from the “superpredator” hysteria days of the 1990s. They often call for more policing of—and stricter penalties for—young people, as Republican legislators in Minnesota and Louisiana have recently advocated. But without understanding the context behind the fearmongering, we will just keep repeating the same failed solutions.
High-profile shootings and gun-related murders, flash mobs, robberies, and school shootings all play into a persistent public impression that crime, and especially youth crime, is on the uptick. But official statistics reveal a different reality: Youth crime and violent crime are down considerably—about 20 percent since the year 2000, according to recent reporting by the BBC, based on FBI data.
The crime wave narratives, however, lead to the spread of misinformation, which, in turn, can lead to policymakers defaulting to outdated practices and models that harm youth by criminalizing them, subjecting them to adult imprisonment and foreclosing more productive, restorative justice alternatives. For example, dozens of cities, such as Chicago, Memphis, and Philadelphia, are implementing curfews for young people in reaction to youth crime despite little evidence that curfews are actually necessary or effective.
As experts in youth policy, we believe an entirely different analysis and approach is needed—one that offers an alternative to incarceration. For poor youth facing the greatest risks of early incarceration, that includes early and far more meaningful investments in child and family development, economic security, education and employment, and violence prevention programs. We want to see policies that remove the conditions that contribute to crime and more fully support the wellbeing of vulnerable youth facing complex issues and needs.
Black and Latinx rates of youth incarceration and sentencing periods continue to significantly exceed those of white Americans. Recent reporting by Pew Research Center shows that in 2022, Black Americans were admitted to jails at more than four times the rate of white Americans and were detained for longer sentences for the same or similar offenses. Young people of color who are arrested once by age twenty-six also earn about $5,000 less per year as adults, and this rises to nearly $8,000 if there are multiple arrests by that age.
Youth justice reform advocates have long argued for centering youth, families, and communities in determining what’s needed to support sustainable solutions. This approach asks young people what matters to them and listens to their responses. By examining our biases and narratives about young people, particularly youth of color, we can begin to dismantle walls built by historical inequities—the absence of safe neighborhoods, good schools, economic opportunity, and meaningful pathways to rewarding futures.
Community-based strategies that build on new investments in early childhood nutrition, family economic security, increased education, job training, and placement programs will reduce barriers to success for our most challenged youth and communities. So will more early and sustained public investments in family asset building (like state-supported baby bonds programs), child care, decent and affordable housing, and literacy training. Our young people also need far greater access to positive cultural and recreational opportunities and safe outdoor play spaces.
Young people should have what all of us deserve in a democratic society: a just system without walls that respects their full humanity and potential.
This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.