Youth crime declines across Md.

Report finds decadelong fall overall, excluding pandemic, but gun violence increasing

Attention has swirled this year around the number of young people falling victim to or perpetrating gun violence in Baltimore, amid tragedies such as the Brooklyn Homes mass shooting and the fatal shooting across from Edmondson-Westside High School in January.

But, Vincent Schiraldi, the state Department of Juvenile Services secretary, said it’s vital to put those instances in proper context.

On Tuesday, the department released a report breaking down a decade of statewide data on youth crime.

Titled “Putting Youth Crime in Maryland in Context,” the report shows offenses committed by young people make up a small portion of all crimes statewide. It also shows that those crimes committed by young people, which have seen an uptick since the pandemic years, are still down from pre-pandemic levels — part of a roughly decadelong overall decline.

The report confirms, however, that gun violence harming children and teens has increased.

It finds, for example, a four-fold increase in young Marylanders being nonfatally shot over the past decade. The vast majority of those young people who are injured are people of color.

But the report also found that young people are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than perpetrators.

Maryland’s youth crime rates track roughly with national trends, according to the report. Both nationally and statewide, 10- to 19-year-olds made up 14% to 15% of violent crime offenders in 2021. And both saw declines in youth arrests, including for violent crimes, between 2013 and 2020.

Schiraldi said the data review was part of a comprehensive examination of juvenile services that he initiated when he took office at the end of January. He’s also held staff listening sessions, met with judges and prosecutors and brought in experts from across the country.

The review was key, he said, to understand what’s going on and what the agency needs to do.

It’s also vital given the recent attention from the news media, lawmakers and others have paid to youth violence in Baltimore and across the state. Placing crime statistics in a proper context is important, he explained, lest there be a repeat of the errors of the “superpredator” hysteria of

the 1990s.

During that period, young people were cast as dangerous in the media and by officials, leading to real public policy consequences, such as a wave of laws making it easier to incarcerate children in adult facilities. Schiraldi said research shows that led to a host of “bad outcomes,” including findings that young people incarcerated in adult facilities are more likely to commit new crimes and have shorter life spans.

“I think those bad outcomes came from laws that were problematic, and those laws that were problematic came from that vilification of kids,” Schiraldi said. “I don’t want that to happen again.”

According to the report, complaints referred to the Department of Juvenile Services alleging violent crimes dropped 16.5% from fiscal year 2019-2020 to fiscal year 2022-2023, the year that ended in June. Within that category, changes varied by offense:

Robbery, a sizeable category, dropped by 30%, while carjackings, a smaller one, increased by 85.4%. Handgun violations rose by 220%.

Over that same time period, from July 2019 through June 2023, nonviolent felony complaints also increased. The report said much of the rise was due to auto theft offenses, which increased 64.6% in that timespan.

Auto thefts are on the rise nationwide, the report said, at least in part due to social media videos that popularized stealing Kia and Hyundai vehicles by taking advantage of design flaws.

In the last decade, while youth arrests have declined, the proportion of juvenile complaints that are for crimes of violence largely has gone unchanged.

That’s despite a “very serious increase” in young Marylanders who are victims of homicides and nonfatal shootings, which the department’s report called “deeply concerning.”

“While youth violence in Maryland is not out of step with either adult violence trends in Maryland or trends for juveniles nationally, there is no denying that there is too much gun violence among — and particularly against — Maryland’s youth and adults and that decisive action must be taken by government and community alike to protect Maryland’s children while holding them accountable,” the report said.

In Baltimore specifically, from 2013 to 2022, the number of young people shot fatally doubled, and the number nonfatally wounded rose 188.9%.

Statewide, young people killed in homicides increased 62.1% between 2013 and 2022, going from 29 victims to 47. The number of young people wounded in nonfatal shootings rose 317% in that time, from 41 in 2013 to 171 in 2022.

Over the last six years, the report showed, Baltimore saw an increase in arrests of young people for murder — from five in 2017 to 12 in 2022, with eight so far through June of this year — and fluctuating numbers of young people arrested for attempted murder.

But it cautions that the arrests are for a fraction of the overall shootings in the city. For example, from January through June of this year, eight people under age 18 were arrested for homicides and four for attempted murders. During the same six-month span, the city saw 141 homicides and 308 nonfatal shootings.

Schiraldi said in an interview that it’s difficult to say whether young people were falling victim to adult or youth shooters, largely because there’s more information available about who gets shot than who does the shooting. Someone who shoots another person may or may not be arrested.

The report also identifies some troubling racial disparities.

Maryland’s young people of color are far more likely to be victims of homicides and nonfatal shootings, making up roughly nine in 10 shooting victims.

They make up a larger proportion of Department of Juvenile Services complaints (75% in the fiscal year that ended in June) than their share of the state population (58.3%), and are overrepresented in the state’s correctional facilities while being underrepresented in community-based approaches.

Black youth made up 83.3% of young people charged as adults, who were incarcerated in juvenile facilities in the fiscal year ending in June 2022.

And, the report stated, nine out of 10 people incarcerated in Maryland for crimes they committed before age 18 are people of color. Maryland’s percentage of people incarcerated for those crimes committed before age 18 is twice the national average, according to the report.

The report concludes with some of the steps the Department of Juvenile Services is taking. It plans to launch “The Thrive Academy,” an initiative meant to target supports and interventions toward young people under the department’s care who are at greatest risk of gun violence involvement.

The report said the program will include education and employment incentives, life coaches with lived experiences, the chance to become a “peace ambassador,” and personal or family relocation assistance.