Juvenile offenses peak in teenage years

On Monday, Columbia police took two minors into custody after a drug deal turned into a shooting at Parks Edge Place. A 15-year-old is now recovering from a life-threatening gunshot wound.

According to the National Institute of Justice, the prevalence of violent offenses in juveniles tends to increase from late childhood and peak between ages 15 and 19. The trend for minors arrested for violent crimes inches upward from age 9 to 18 and declines after that.

Minors who start offending before age 12 are more likely to continue down a path of crime into early adulthood.

“They often don’t understand the consequences of what they have done,” said Clark Peters, an assistant professor of social work at Mizzou. “They don’t understand the harm they have caused.”

There’s no simple reason why juveniles tend to leave the right path and many factors often play into it like family difficulties, peer pressure and bad grades.

“Those things that go wrong sometimes don’t really have much of an effect and sometimes you get people who end up engaging in really violent activities,” said Peters.

Peters said that early interventions in childhood can be effective in preventing delinquency in these juveniles.

Columbia Police Department’s Community Outreach Officer Phillip Shull knows this and helps mentor young people through problem-oriented policing.

“Every time I see someone under the age of 21, I try to spend a little extra time with them,” said Officer Phillip Shull.

He said they try to be better role models for children than they might have otherwise.

“Having someone pay attention to them who isn’t a creeper or a gang member trying to get them to do bad things is a good thing for them,” said Shull.

One north Columbia girl said she does see the police as role models.

“The cops make us feel safer,” she said. “It’s happy because we know if there was any trouble the cops will be around to help us.”

Shull said that they will try to reach out to 15 to 21-year-olds who are getting in trouble but know that down the line, those teens are also influencing their little siblings at home who are still impressionable.

The earliest age for gang membership is between 14 and 16-years old and most gang killings take place during adolescence.

CPD works with other organizations to show trouble youths there is someone who cares.

“Maybe they will be more likely, when they are at that age, to make that critical choice,” he said. “‘Do I get in the car with this guy and go shoot at somebody? Well, I don’t know man, maybe I won’t do that.'”