Latest news with #RaiseTheAge
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Teenage victims and criminals have increased since ‘raise the age' law passed
This year, New York City residents have been benefiting from historic declines in shootings and homicides, and from less-sharp, but still meaningful, decreases in other crime categories. However, Gotham's youth crime problem has stubbornly resisted the trend. Earlier this year, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters that between 2018 and 2024, the number of juvenile shooters spiked by nearly 200% while the number of juvenile shooting victims jumped by more than 80%. Advertisement This week's fatal stabbing of 14-year-old Angel Mendoza provided yet another gruesome reminder of this difficult challenge. The ninth grader was brutally assaulted in a Bronx park by at least four teenage thugs, two of them minors, who allegedly pistol-whipped, beat, and then stabbed Mendoza to death — all of it recorded on video. The fatal stabbing, as with other recent incidents of fatal teen-on-teen violence leaves us asking why youth violence is on the rise during a citywide crime decline. Advertisement One possible answer lies in New York's 2017 'Raise The Age' law — signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who also closed multiple juvenile detention facilities during his tenure. The law drastically reduced the likelihood that 16- and 17-year-old offenders would face meaningful terms of incarceration for even serious crimes by sharply increasing the rate at which their cases are diverted to Family Court. A 2023 Manhattan Institute study found that as of September of 2022, 83% of felonies involving 16- and 17-year-old offenders ended up in family court, including 75% of non-drug-related Class A felonies — the most serious crime category. In 2021, the New York City Criminal Justice Agency found that in the first year after the law took effect, the Big Apple saw a significant spike in rearrests among juvenile beneficiaries. Advertisement Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Yet state lawmakers have refused to reexamine the law. One of the decarcerationists' favorite points to make in the law's defense is that youthfulness should always be viewed as a mitigating factor. Our brains are not fully developed until well after we reach the age of maturity, the argument goes, therefore it is unjust to hold teenagers fully responsible for their crimes. Advertisement But the vast majority of America's teens aren't knifing one another to death in parks, carjacking soccer moms or popping handguns off in the streets — making that argument much less persuasive. It's a statistical reality as well that younger offenders reoffend at higher rates than older ones do. And what about the incentive for gangs to recruit younger and younger kids into their ranks — kids they can convince to do their dirty work in part because they won't face the same consequences they would have less than 10 years ago? As has been the case with so many criminal justice reform initiatives, the available data indicate that the population Raise the Age meant to benefit — teenagers — are worse off in the law's wake. The Manhattan Institute's 2023 report found that juveniles were 'the victims of gun crime about three times as often as they were five years [prior].' One wonders whether those who defend these policies would tolerate teens who supposedly lack the mental capacity to resist brutally violent impulses walking the streets of their own neighborhoods. If not, then why are they willing to allow it in the Bronx? Rafael A. Mangual is the Nick Ohnell fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a contributing editor of City Journal, and author of the 2022 book 'Criminal (In)Justice.'
New York Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Kathy Hochul ‘willing' to consider Raise the Age reforms as she takes victory lap on discovery tweaks
ALBANY – Changes to New York's criminal evidence discovery rules go into effect this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday — while signaling she's 'willing to look at' controversial 'Raise the Age' reforms next. The Democrat may not look to pick a fight on Raise the Age — which upped the age of adult criminal responsibility from 16 to 18 — as she's up for re-election in 2026 and following a bruising battle with lawmakers on changes to laws that govern evidence-sharing requirements in criminal cases. Hochul said the tweaks, which go into effect Thursday, are meant to stop cases from being dismissed on technicalities because of reforms that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature pushed through in 2019. 'That whole case they built to show society that there will be justice for victims is turned upside down on its head, and there was no justice for victims. So, my goal is to stop this,' Hochul said. Gov. Kathy Hochul celebrated changes to New York's discovery laws, which go into effect Thursday. Hans Pennink The five New York City district attorneys, Alvin Bragg, Darcel Clark, Eric Gonzalez, Melinda Katz and Vince McMahon, allied with Hochul in pushing for the changes. Law enforcement officials and some Democratic politicians are now calling for changes to Raise the Age. 'If there's conversations about Raise the Age, the legislative session is the time to do that, and I would certainly entertain conversations on every topic related to criminal justice,' Hochul said. Raise the Age was signed into law by Cuomo in 2017 and directs 16 and 17-year-old offenders to have their cases heard by family court judges, even in serious felonies such as murder. The reforms were meant to set up youth offenders with resources to try to stop them from becoming repeat offenders, something Hochul has said is an area that should be addressed. 'The money that was allocated for programs as alternatives has not gotten out fast enough,' she said. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other DA's had pushed for the discovery reforms. REUTERS Hochul is facing calls to take on the issue, especially after 10 people were shot, including one killed, during multiple volleys of gunfire and a house was razed with a flare gun following a fireworks display near the state capitol in Albany on July 4. Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and Police Chief Brendan Cox ripped Raise The Age in a press conference shortly after the July 4th shootings. 'I don't say that a lot of 15-year-olds need to be taken off the street and put away, but if a 15-year-old is walking down the street and just indiscriminately firing into a crowd, well, I hate to say it, but they got to be taken off the street and they got to go away,' Cox said. Albany District Attorney Lee Kindlon, a Democrat and former defense attorney, has also called for changes to the statute.
