Data Reveals Violence Among Youth Under 18 Has Not Spiked in the Pandemic

Throughout the pandemic, a flurry of alarming news coverage and inflammatory rhetoric from politicians have appeared in national1 and local2 media
highlighting serious violent crimes by youth. The issue has generated considerable political attention in Congress3 and across the country, and it has fueled
calls to scale back youth justice reforms enacted in many states and to derail proposed reforms in others.

This report explains why these calls for a return to get-tough youth justice policies are misguided, based on a false narrative regarding recent trends in youth
crime and what actually works to prevent delinquency and promote youth success.