Violent youth crime peaks after school

The time between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

is the most trouble-prone, a report found.

Activities are urged.

INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — Violent juvenile crime on school days occurs much more

frequently between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. than late at night, a report

released yesterday said.

With violent juvenile crime rising, the Justice Department is promoting

the report to try to persuade Congress to spend more money on

after-school youth programs. Several bills are pending in Congress and

may be taken up this week.

“In the afternoons, we used to have sports, drama and music. We had

violins, and now it’s violence,” said James Alan Fox, dean of

Northeastern University’s College of Criminal Justice in Boston and an

author of the report. “We’ve closed down ball fields. We’ve closed down

community centers. We have disinvested in childhood, and kids literally

have too

much time to kill.”

The report also raises questions about the need for curfews, a popular

but controversial crime-control measure. Although many people and civil

rights groups challenge the constitutionality of curfews, about

three-fourths of the nation’s 200 biggest cities have them.

The report says that nearly half of violent juvenile crime — murders,

rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults — occurs from 2 p.m. to 8

p.m., but that just one-seventh occurs from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., when

curfews typically are in effect.

“What a curfew does is tell kids you should not commit crimes when you

are asleep,” Fox said. The report was released by Fight Crime: Invest

in Kids, a youth-advocacy group made up of police chiefs, prosecutors

and crime survivors. The study is billed as the most comprehensive on

the link between crime by people under 18 and time of day.

Violent juvenile crime triples from 3 to 4 p.m., the hour immediately

after school, compared with 1 to 2 p.m., when school is still in

session. It dips around dinner time, rises slightly, then declines in

the later evening as most parents want their children home for bed.

In contrast, Fox said, adult crime rises all through the day and evening

and peaks at 11 p.m. The new report focuses on school days, when 57

percent of violent juvenile crime is committed. Fox said juvenile crime

on weekends and during the summer is also higher in the afternoon and

evening than the morning or late night, but without the 3 p.m. peak.

“Prime time for juvenile crime,” Fox said, is when parents are working

and youths are hanging out on street corners with little to do.

The study’s findings did not surprise Detroit Police Chief Isaiah

McKinnon, whose city struggles with violent juvenile offenders. McKinnon

said most cities confront a “triple-edge sword,” meaning they need to

worry about youths during school hours, after school and late at night.

He also said the report is evidence that curfews have an impact on

crime.

“Those communities that are enforcing curfews, where children are being

told to stay in their homes, that is why less crime is occurring,” said

McKinnon, whose city has an 11 p.m. curfew.

Attorney General Janet Reno and leaders of the youth-advocacy group use

these figures to criticize pending crime legislation.

“Making a responsible choice

means relinquishing the alternatives!”

– Angie Cannon