Youth violence has skyrocketed in NYC, top cop Jessica Tisch reveals as she blames contentious ‘Raise the Age' law
Youth violence has skyrocketed in the Big Apple over the last few years, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday — as she placed the blame on the state's contentious 'Raise the Age' law.
The number of kids under the age of 18 busted with a gun increased by a whopping 136% between 2018 and 2024, the top cop said alongside Mayor Eric Adams at a crime stats briefing held at City Hall.
Over the same period, Tisch said the number of underage shooters soared 192%, while the number of juvenile victims of gun violence spiked by 81%.
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5 The number of kids under the age of 18 busted with a gun increased by a whopping 136% between 2018 and 2024.
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'I have seen enough,' Tisch said of the surging youth crime, while pointing the finger at Albany's soft-on-crime law that raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18.
The NYPD couldn't immediately provide the exact numbers tied to the percentage increases cited by the commissioner.
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But so far in 2025, 36 — or 14% — of suspected shooters in the five boroughs have been under the age of 18, she said.
And 44 shooting victims — also 14% — were under the age of 18 so far this year, according to Tisch.
She said the spike was a result of Raise the Age, which was signed by then-governor – and now mayoral candidate – Andrew Cuomo on April 10, 2017, and took effect in October 2019.
5 Authorities at the scene where a person was reportedly set on fire inside of Penn Station near the NYC subway entrance in New York, NY around 7:55 p.m. on December 27, 2024.
Christopher Sadowski
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The law upped the age for a teen to face adult charges to 18, from the previous 16- and 17-year-old threshold.
'The idea behind this was one that we could all agree on: children should not be treated like adults in our criminal justice system,' Tisch said.
'But when the age of criminal responsibility went up, the age of criminal suspects went down.'
Gangs and crews are now recruiting ever-younger members – who 'carry the guns and commit the shootings, the robberies and the assaults' – in order to evade serious consequences, according to the commissioner.
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5 The law upped the age for a teen to face adult charges to 18, from the previous 16- and 17-year-old threshold.
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'Seriously bad things come from a consequence-free environment, and right now juveniles who commit crimes in New York City are living in a virtually consequence-free environment,' she said.
Tisch's comments came a week after a 13-year-old boy was busted in the murder of an innocent 28-year-old plumber's apprentice from Yonkers who was simply meeting his out-of-town friend in the Bronx when he was shot dead.
The teen turned himself in on May 27 to face charges of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and criminal use of a firearm in the broad-daylight April 23 shooting death of bystander Daoud Marji, police said.
It was part of the troubling trend outlined by Tisch that increasingly shows youngsters becoming both the perpetrators — and victims — of gun violence.
5 Tisch's comments came a week after a 13-year-old boy was busted in the murder of an innocent 28-year-old plumber's apprentice from Yonkers.
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Earlier in May, Evette Jeffrey, a 16-year-old girl riding her scooter near a schoolyard was shot in the head and killed by a stray bullet — which was fired by a 14-year-old who was handed a gun by a 13-year-old, according to cops.
The tragic May 12 shooting stemmed from a beef between rival street gangs — Forest Over Everything and the upstart crew Kreep On Davidson — based at the Davidson Houses housing project in Morrisania, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
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'She was an innocent bystander who was simply trying to take cover behind the brick wall and was struck in the head by one of the rounds,' Kenny said at the time about the young victim.
5
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'The victim, Evette Jeffrey, was not involved in this dispute.'
Tisch's startling comments came as she and Adams announced a more promising crime trend — a dip in shooting and murders so far this year.
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From January through May, the Big Apple saw the lowest number of shootings and murders in recorded history, statistics show.
The city also set a record for the lowest number of shootings and murders in the month of May, the officials said.
The mayor and top cop also touted the NYPD's seizure of more than 2,200 illegal firearms from the streets since the beginning of 2025.
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