There’s a prevailing narrative in the United States that crime has been on the rise, including violence among young people.
Still, educators every day notice the effects of a long-term worsening of adolescents’ mental health and an increase in bad behavior since school buildings reopened following pandemic closures. They also report an uptick in threats of and actual physical and verbal aggression from students .
The complicated reality points to a need for educators, health care providers, those in the criminal justice system, and others who work with young people to focus more sharply on addressing the root causes of youth crime and boosting the available mental health services that can help adolescents work through them.
That’s according to Josh Weber, director of the juvenile justice program at the Council of State Governments, who laid out three key considerations on youth crime during a July 29 webinar that could provide an important backdrop for educators as they try to address their students’ needs and foster a safe school climate where all students can learn.
“There was a moment in time during the pandemic and post-pandemic where violence spiked, but evidence suggests that that is subsiding, and so rather than overreacting to a relatively short-term data blip in violence, it’s important to really try to understand some of the root causes of that violence, and address those,” he said.
Adolescents are increasingly struggling with their mental health and experiencing trauma in and out of their homes, Weber said. And mental health care providers and the juvenile justice system, often the destination for adolescents and teenagers with the most severe challenges, are struggling to hire and retain staff to meet the demand.
The CDC survey also showed that more than half of respondents, 55 percent, reported experiencing emotional abuse by an adult in their home, and 12 percent reported physical abuse. One in 5 high school students said they had seen someone get physically attacked, stabbed, or shot in their neighborhood. More than a third reported experiencing racism.
