Youth crime within the Massive Apple has greater than doubled because the state’s controversial “Elevate the Age Legislation” kicked in — regardless of general dips in crime, Mayor Eric Adams’ newest annual report revealed.
The newly launched Mayor’s Administration Report exhibits drops in six of the seven main crimes throughout the 5 boroughs over the previous 12 months — but additionally exhibits that there have been 5,623 felony youth arrests in fiscal 12 months 2025, up from 2,200 in fiscal 2018 when the lax legislation kicked in, and a couple of,807 in 2021.
Kids are additionally paying the worth, with crimes in opposition to youths at 5,177 throughout this fiscal 12 months in comparison with simply 2,259 within the 2021 fiscal 12 months, the 554-page report exhibits.
“Mayor Adams has been clear that the ‘Elevate the Age’ laws handed by the previous governor has contributed considerably to each perpetrators and victims of violent crimes being youthful,” Metropolis Corridor spokesperson Kayla Mamelak stated in an announcement Wednesday.
“That’s the reason we proceed to press state legislators to reform legal guidelines like these and make sure the public is protected and persons are held accountable,” she stated.
“It’s unlucky that this laws has contributed to increased rearrests charges amongst youth probationers and youth arrests for felonies, however the Adams administration is dedicated to educating and interesting youth earlier than they ever make contact with the justice system.”
Total, the statistics paint a optimistic image of Gotham crime developments within the 2025 fiscal 12 months— that includes a 6% drop in murders; 17% lower in robberies; 9% drop in felonious assaults; and a 5% dip in burglaries, whereas grand larceny and grand larceny auto each fell 10%.
The report additionally exhibits a 14% dip in capturing incidents, from 932 to 804 12 months over 12 months, in comparison with the identical time-frame final 12 months — and noticed the fewest August shootings within the COMPStat period since these numbers have been first reported in 1993.
Between final 12 months and this 12 months, transit arrests jumped to 25,833 in comparison with 14,545, whereas police issued 196,102 high quality of life summonses this fiscal 12 months, up from 179,673 final 12 months and greater than triple the fiscal 2021 57,876 citations — largely the results of a citywide quality-of-life effort launched by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch earlier this 12 months.
However the youth crime stats inform a distinct story.
Elevate the Age, signed by then -Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2017 and later backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, was a part of a sequence of felony justice reforms handed by state lawmakers.
The statute raised the age of felony accountability from 16 to 18, and allowed suspects as outdated as 21 to be housed in juvenile detention services moderately than in grownup jails.
By fiscal 12 months 2020, youth felony arrests jumped to 4,252 from 2,754 in 2019, the mayor’s report exhibits.
“Juvenile arrests for main felonies elevated 54 % as a result of phased nature of the implementation of the Elevate the Age Legislation,” the 2020 report by then-Mayor Invoice de Blasio famous.
“The fiscal 2019 reporting interval solely accounted for 9 months of the inclusion of 16-year-old arrestees, whereas the fiscal 2020 included a complete 12 months of all 16-year-old arrestees, and 9 months of 17-year-old arrestees,” the sooner report stated.
The numbers dipped to 2,807 in fiscal 2021, partially as a result of COVID-19 shutdown — however in subsequent years jumped from 4,037 in fiscal 2022 to the 2025 variety of 5,623, the brand new report stated.
In keeping with the NYPD, juvenile homicide arrests practically quadrupled from eight in 2017 to 30 in 2024.
The mayor’s report stated the NYPD is launching new efforts to deal with college and pupil security.
“We’ll do evaluation, I feel, communicate with the police commissioners to do the correlation between that invoice and what has been occurring since that invoice,” Adams advised The Publish Wednesday when requested concerning the influence of the Elevate the Age legislation on youth crime.
“Good intentions can prove dangerous outcomes,” he stated. “And, you recognize, we’ve poured cash into after college applications, we’ve poured cash into summer season youth employment and internships, so we don’t imagine incarceration is the reply.”
Further reporting by Amanda Woods
