{"id":91804,"date":"2026-01-07T01:08:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/91804\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T01:08:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:08:04","slug":"nyc-youth-crime-hits-historic-highs-in-2025-as-some-parents-blame-raise-the-age-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/91804\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC youth crime hits historic highs in 2025 — as some parents blame Raise the Age law"},"content":{"rendered":"

The kids are far from alright.<\/p>\n

Youth violence across New York City hit historic highs during 2025, with staggering numbers of shooters and shooting victims falling under the age of 18, NYPD data released Tuesday shows.<\/p>\n

Last year, 14% of shooting victims and 18% of shooters were youths, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during an otherwise-triumphant news conference<\/a> outlining drops in crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the highest percentages that we\u2019ve ever seen for both measures since we began tracking this data in 2018,\u201d Tisch said.<\/p>\n

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch revealed Tuesday that youth violence hit historic highs in 2025. REUTERS<\/p>\n

The horrific shooting numbers solidified concerns among some parents about New York\u2019s controversial \u201cRaise the Age\u201d law\u2019s effect on youth violence in 2025 \u2014 a year otherwise marked by crime hitting historic lows.<\/p>\n

Youths pulled the trigger or ended up as innocent victims in several shocking shootings last year, including Damien Calhoun<\/a> \u2014 an 18-year-old who was free on a past attempted murder rap because of Raise the Age when he allegedly was involved in a September gunfight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Talbot, whose 17-year-old daughter Anthonaya Campbell<\/a> was killed by a stray bullet in a Bronx park during August, called the crime stats \u201cdepressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damien Calhoun was free on an attempted murder rap committed as a 17-year-old when he allegedly got into a Harlem gunfight. Steven Hirsch<\/p>\n

Two of the four people charged in Campbell\u2019s shooting were under 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should change the law and put them in adult court, because they committed an adult crime, and they should know they don\u2019t just get a slap on the wrist,\u201d Talbot, 50, told The Post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they need to bring them into the morgue and let them stand there and take care of the bodies. Let them see something hand-on. Let them see that this is the reality of what you\u2019re putting people through.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The law, signed in 2017 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and fully enacted by 2019 amid other Albany-passed criminal justice reforms, raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18.<\/p>\n

Raise the Age\u2019s supporters argued New York\u2019s previous status as one of two remaining states that prosecuted 16- and 17-year-olds as adults had prevented youths from being rehabilitated.<\/p>\n

But critics charged that the law simply whitewashes the troubling records of many juveniles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are scrubbing, sanitizing entire arrest histories to make it more politically appetizing, give the perception of progress when it comes to youth violence,\u201d a law-enforcement source argued. <\/p>\n

Tisch likewise joined the chorus linking the surge in youth offenses<\/a> to the law.<\/p>\n

She argued gangs have been specifically recruiting young members to carry guns for robberies, assaults and shootings, thus shielding older hoodlums from serious consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeriously 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,\u201d she said in June.<\/p>\n

Outside of youth gun violence, crime largely dropped across New York City in 2025\/ Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n

But as Tisch unveiled 2025\u2019s crime numbers alongside Mamdani \u2014 who is supportive of New York\u2019s criminal justice reforms and has argued Raise the Age\u2019s rehabilitative programs aren\u2019t properly funded \u2014 she avoided mentioning the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cAddressing youth violence isn\u2019t the work of one unit, one agency or one solution. It requires all of us \u2014 family, schools, communities, elected officials and law enforcement \u2014 playing our part to keep young people safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She alluded to changes and tweaks that the city\u2019s Administration for Children\u2019s Services and probation departments can make, along with a hint that Albany could take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to having these conversations with the mayor and with his team, because, as I mentioned, to address the problem of these guns and the victims of this violence, it\u2019s going to take an all-of-city and an all-of-state approach,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts and Craig McCarthy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The kids are far from alright. Youth violence across New York City hit historic highs during 2025, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4241,303,5302,426,57,9,56,63,65,64,103,58,13776,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-91804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-albany","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-jessica-tisch","11":"tag-kathy-hochul","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-nypd","19":"tag-us-news","20":"tag-youth","21":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}