Idle kids in DC. Photo by squidpants.

While crime in the District is generally decreasing, crimes committed by juveniles remains a significant problem across many DC neighborhoods. Some crimes committed by juveniles appear to be growing in their intensity and violence. Adolescence is marked by frequent turning points that can bring about positive outcomes, such as entering a high performing school or finding part-time work. It can also be a time of negative events, such as an arrest or suspension from school. For youth growing up in poor and underserved urban communities, the negative outcomes often outweigh the positive.

To address juvenile crime, Councilmember Tommy Wells (Ward 6) created a task force in November 2008 to research, develop and propose various recommendations to decrease juvenile crime in Ward 6. If successful, hopefully the tactics used to reduce juvenile crime in Ward 6 can be applied District-wide. The task force commissioned by Wells held several meetings over the last couple of months and from those meetings they have developed an impressive set of proposed initiatives to reduce juvenile crime by addressing the following areas and issues:

Increase Public Transparency and Government Accountability

  1. Reform the District’s confidentiality laws so the Department of Youth and Rehabilitations Services (DYRS), Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), DC Public Schools (DCPS), DC Housing Authority (DCHA), the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and related service providers can share information about juveniles who commit crimes, especially violent crimes.
  2. Mandate the creation of an interagency database assessment tool for tracking at-risk youth.
  3. Make juvenile violent crime data available to the community.

Increase Meaningful Juvenile Offender Accountability

  1. Streamline and strengthen the government’s ability to revoke a committed youth’s right to stay in a community placement.
  2. Increase compliance with mandated community service for juveniles.

Address Truancy in DC Schools

  1. Amend DC law to require families with children under 13 years of younger that miss 10 days of school without an excuse to be referred to Child Protective Services (CFSA) for investigation and/or assessment.
  2. Provide truancy data to MPD, Department of Human Services, DC Housing Authority and neighborhood youth groups.

Expand Innovations for Preventing Juvenile Crime

  1. Expand the WRAP-Around Model for juvenile intervention.
  2. Expand the use of neighborhood volunteers for addressing gaps in youth programs in targeted neighborhoods.
  3. Create a Juvenile Crime Commission and Juvenile Crime Youth-Only Commission.

Creating a system that allows various District agencies to communicate with each other will perhaps be one of the biggest, yet most important, challenges suggested by the task force. In DC, current confidentiality laws that are intended to protect juveniles often make it difficult for agencies to share information with each other about at-risk youth until it is too late. Mayor Fenty recently announced plans to compile a list the 60 most serious juvenile offenders in detention and share this information with police and some community groups. The announcement of the program comes after a series of cases in which juveniles held after committing serious crimes have been released and then committed more crimes.

Another important initiative proposed by the task force doesn’t necessarily address juvenile crime, but works to prevent a crime from happening in the first place is the expansion of wrap-around programs. Wraparound programs offer intensive, individualized care for youth with serious or complex needs. The District created a pilot wraparound program, DC Choices, modeled after a program in Milwaukee, WI called Wraparound Milwaukee. The Milwaukee program resulted in a 25% declined in juvenile violence.

The recommendations made by the Task Force are a good start and provide a guidance about steps that need to be taken to reduce juvenile crime in the District. Those interested in learning more about steps being taken in Ward 6, the next Task Force meeting is March 23 at Payne Elementary School at 6:30pm. Regardless of the tactics used, it will take a concerted effort on the behalf of community groups, schools, law enforcement, and parents to truly have an impact on crimes committed by juveniles.

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Tagged: crime, dc, education, public safety, tommy wells, youth

Lynda Laughlin is a family demographer at the U.S. Census Bureau. She holds a PhD in sociology and enjoys reading, writing, and researching issues related to families and communities, urban economics, and urban development. Lynda lives in Mt. Pleasant. Views expressed here are strictly her own.