Amid a surge in carjackings and violent crimes, a report published Tuesday shows youth crime in Maryland in ticking up but still below pre-pandemic levels.
Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services released a research brief Tuesday that it said puts data on youth crime “in context.”
It comes as Maryland prosecutors are pressing for changes to laws that they say make it harder to tackle juvenile crime. Lawmakers will be holding a House Judiciary Committee briefing on the issue Wednesday.
Referring to prosecutors’ complaints that they’ve been hamstrung by changes to juvenile law, including one that limits the ability of police and prosecutors to interrogate juveniles, the Department of Juvenile Services Secretary Vincent Schiraldi said, “It hasn’t been that they haven’t been able to arrest, charge and detain kids — because the number of complaints we’re receiving has increased, not decreased since the law went into effect” in October of 2022.
Is youth crime on the rise?
According to the report, juvenile crime complaints have jumped in the past two years — from 7,100 in fiscal year 2021 to 12,363 in fiscal year 2023.
At the same time, Schiraldi said that there’s been a long-term downward trend in juvenile crime.
Since 2013, the report states, juvenile complaints have dropped 50% since and “are still below pre-pandemic levels.”
But Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told WTOP in an interview that “The reality is, I think we are less safe now” because under the changes to the law on interrogations, juveniles can’t be questioned until they have consulted with an attorney.
Under those conditions, McCarthy said, “You get no information, because no lawyer is going to say — talk to the cops.”
“You have to remember, that any information that we get from anybody always had to satisfy constitutional requirements,” McCarthy said. But the recent change to interrogations of juveniles means there’s less access to getting timely information about crimes involving juveniles.
“The consequence is a less safe community,” he said.
Schiraldi said there should be concern about crimes that are committed by young people, but he said, the percentage of juveniles arrested for crime overall represent a fraction of all criminal arrests in the state. Data in the report shows adults are arrested for 92.9% of crime overall while 7.1% of those arrested are juveniles.
Gun violence
Young people, including those who end up in the juvenile system, are often the victims of gun violence, said Schiraldi.
Over the past decade, the number of teenagers injured by gunfire in Maryland has quadrupled, from 41 in 2013 to 171 in 2022.
When looking at gun related homicides, Schiraldi said the data shows that 29 young people were killed in 2013 compared to 47 in 2022.
Asked about whether the perpetrators of that gun violence are juveniles, Schiraldi said, “It’s not always known. We know a lot more about who gets shot than who does the shooting” due to low clearance rates.
The report also indicated that young people are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violent crimes.
Providing services
Since taking over leadership of the agency, Schiraldi said the vacancy rate in his office has dropped, from 18% when he arrived in January to 7% now. He said that means there are now more staff members working directly with juveniles every day.
“And I’ll tell you, that makes a big difference in the kinds of services we can provide young people, and the morale of staff,” Schiraldi said.
Among the things the department is doing, said Schiraldi, is cutting “idle time” among juveniles in custody and adding programs including therapy to address behavioral issues. One element of that treatment focuses on helping young people in custody to regulate their emotions.
“You can actually help people learn how not to overreact to volatile situations where they may be in a fight” or other stressful situations. And Schiraldi said “the research is pretty strong that will reduce recidivism in general, and violent recidivism in particular.”
Schiraldi, who was appointed by Gov. Wes Moore, echoed the governor’s mantra that there needs to be an all-hands on deck approach to fighting juvenile crime, especially violent crimes.
“My part of that is to be focusing on the kids most likely to use guns or to be victimized by guns to make sure we’re putting them on the right path, and that’s exactly what I intend to do” he said.
