Soaring Teen Crime a Message for Hochul — Fix Raise the Age and Save New York’s Kids

At last week’s 2025 year-end crime briefing, Commissioner Jessica Tisch cited multiple successes tied to the NYPD’s relentless focus on crime hotspots and the gang members within them; the rundown was impressive and encouraging — except for one major category: juvenile crime.

So what gives?

Maybe it’s the state’s 2018 Raise the Age law.

Year over year, murders in New York City were down some 20% in 2025, robberies down almost 10%, and thefts and burglaries down modestly; shootings were at their lowest levels ever.

Juvenile crime, however, kept rising.

“While we have made historic gains, generally, fighting violent crime, we have not turned the tide yet on youth violence,” Tisch told the media at One Police Plaza.

The commissioner said 14% of shooting victims were under age 18 in 2025 (up from 9% the previous year), and 18% of gun-violence perpetrators were minors, too.

Both percentages represent high-water marks since the NYPD began tracking the measure in 2018 — the year provisions of Raise the Age first went into effect.

Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post

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Rafael Mangual is the Nick Ohnell Fellow and head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He is also the author of Criminal (In)Justice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts Most. 

Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images