Worcester Plagued By Youth/Gang Crime
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
A rash of shootings that led to five victims – including a 19-year-old who died - combined with a 15-year-old shot in mid-September, a 16-year-old arrested for having a semi-automatic handgun, and a wealth of other youth violence issues has led the city to be on high alert, looking for both short and long term solutions.
“There are a lot of alarming trends happening with youth crime in the city; youth violence is something that I have been interested in for a while now,” said City Councilor Sarai Rivera. “There needs to be a strong collaborative partnership between police, government, and community groups throughout the city.”
At a recent city council meeting, both Rivera and Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty had brought up the issue of youth violence, hoping that the city can come together to combat the troubling trend.
Bringing the Community Together
Regardless of whom you ask in the city, you are likely to get a similar answer in regards to what should be done to combat the issue of youth crime: a two pronged attack that involves members of the community at all levels.
Much needs to be done on a lot of different levels in order to properly address the issue of youth violence. While the adolescents currently committing the crimes need to be dealt with properly, there also needs to be a lot of community work to look at early warning signs of younger children to make sure that they are not falling into habits that could associate them with crime at a later age.
While guns seem to be the weapon of choice as of late, they aren't the only weapon used for youth crime in the city
Changing Culture
Culture certainly needs to be changed at a community level – adolescents need to be given more opportunities with jobs and community involvement to be able to success in life and not turn to violence and crime – but the courts in Massachusetts and beyond also need to have some culture changes to help give children a fair shot.
According to Naoka Carey, Executive Director of the Massachusetts group Citizens for Juvenile Justice, changes need to be made both in diverting children from the court systems and offering better solutions when they have been placed in the system, all changes that could divert adolescents from continuing a life of crime.
Research shows that recidivism is often a byproduct of children even being arraigned in court. When a child has been processed, it typically disrupts any positive aspects of life that they had going for them: school, job, sports, etc. Additionally, Massachusetts laws do not permit expunging of records, meaning that one infraction could follow an adolescent for the rest of their life.
“Simply punishing kids without also supporting them in doing positive things is going to be ineffective,” said Carey. “Kids tend to react to situations without thinking very much, or at all. They are simply not considering the possible consequences in the same way an adult would.”
Related Slideshow: Worcester’s Most Dangerous Neighborhoods
Neighborhood search website Neighborhood Scout indexed violent and property crimes data from the Federal Bureau of Investigations to determine the crime rates on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis in Worcester. The slides below show the overall crime index (a score of 100 is best) as well as the per capita crime rates broken down by violent and property crime. The data is sourced from 2011 figures, the most recent year available from the FBI. The online resource is created by Location, Inc., a Worcester-area company that bills itself as a leader of location-based data and risk analysis information.
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