My friend and his wife, longtime residents of Washington, D.C., helped me understand one of the root causes of crime in the nation’s capital — truancy.
“It starts there,” said my friend. “During COVID-19, kids got used to skipping online classes without consequences. When schools reopened, many kept skipping. The Washington Post reports that middle school truancy tripled from 10% to more than 30% over the last decade. In some high schools, it’s 56%.”
“And truant kids get into trouble?” I said.
“For sure,” said my friend’s wife. “The Post says idle kids are more likely to end up in carjackings, robberies and shootings — and that truancy is driving the biggest youth crime surge in a generation.”
“Maybe they need more truancy officers?” I said.
“D.C. already has truancy officers and police patrols pulling kids off street corners and taking them back to class,” said my friend. “But kids leave school as soon as the officers leave.”
“That’s unfortunate,” I said.
“It’s no wonder the city’s graduation rate is only 76%, compared with the national average of 87%,” said my friend’s wife.
“Where are the parents?” I said.
“Mostly not in the home,” said my friend. “Eighty-three percent of D.C. teens grow up without both parents, usually in fatherless homes.”
“It’s well-known that boys without fathers in the home often have bad outcomes,” I said.
“Sad, but true,” said my friend’s wife. “Last year, boys under 18 were responsible for about 21% of D.C. shootings and nearly half of all carjackings — some arrested were as young as 12.”
“That is a heartbreaker,” I said. “So, D.C. crime is worse than ever?”
“Actually, crime in D.C. has dropped in the past two years, but it’s still higher than it was before the pandemic,” said my friend. “However, youth crime is a growing problem.”
“Why do so many kids repeat these crimes?” I said.
“Most kids under 18 are tried in juvenile court where penalties are light,” said my friend’s wife. “Many are back on the streets within days. Some have been arrested for multiple carjackings in the same month.”
“So, what’s the fix?” I said.
“President Trump announced a sweeping federal intervention in D.C.,” said my friend. “He’s deploying the National Guard and about 500 federal agents — FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE and U.S. Marshals — and placing the D.C. police under federal control. He invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act to justify it.”
“That’s aggressive,” I said. “But how does that fit with the juvenile crime issue we’ve been talking about?”
“Trump wants kids as young as 14 — at least for serious crimes — to face adult court,” said my friend’s wife. “That’s controversial, but it could deter repeat offenders. However, because Congress granted D.C. ‘home rule’ in the 1970s, the city still manages its own schools and courts — which limits what a president can do. That brings us back to the root cause of the youth crime problem.”
“The breakdown of the family?” I said.
“That’s right,” said my friend. “Until we restore family stability and give our kids schools that properly educate them, too many teens are going to continue going down the wrong path in Washington, D.C.”
Tom Purcell’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
