Although children have been responsible for some stunning and high-profile crimes across the city and county, most juvenile offenses are minor and many underage offenders get their lives back on track with intervention and social supports, officials said.
“In general, I think our children suffered a lot through the pandemic,” said Montgomery County Juvenile Court Judge Helen Wallace. “Everything, as you know, was shut down, and children were left without eyes on them, and I don’t think that was healthy for anybody.”
As of the end of May, the Dayton Police Department reported 898 juvenile bookings this year — an 86% increase from the same period in 2022. Juvenile bookings exceeded 200 in one month in April for the first time since at least the beginning of 2018, and it set a new recent high of 244 in May.
Dayton Police Lt. Col. Eric Henderson said the pandemic threw off the numbers in such a way that it makes it hard to determine trends in the data, but nationwide there appears to be an increase in juvenile crime.
Dayton has seen an increase in violent crime this year and the police department told this newspaper it is alarming that juveniles have been involved in some violent offenses and motor vehicle thefts.
For instance, the city has seen a huge jump in auto thefts this year, and some young people have learned how to steal certain types of Kia and Hyundai vehicles in a few simple steps by watching viral videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
“However, there is not enough information at this time to determine locally if this trend will continue or what exactly to attribute it to,” Henderson said. “The department constantly monitors trends and works with other community members and partners to address these issues.”
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Social media is a big and growing part of young people’s lives and the platforms may be contributing to some types of problematic juvenile behaviors and criminal activities, said Juvenile Court Judge Wallace.
Kids not only connect on social media — they learn behaviors from their peers and others they follow who sometimes glamorize guns and the outlaw or criminal lifestyle, the judge said.
The Dayton Police Department said many young people did not get normal social interaction for an extended period of time during the pandemic and communities “are seeing the effects of this nationwide for the past year or two.”
After a lull in cases during the pandemic, violent crimes involving juveniles are returning to pre-pandemic levels, according to Montgomery County Juvenile Court data.
Countywide cases
Juvenile court receives referrals from law enforcement agencies, schools and parents and completes an assessment to determine if the case should go before a judge or magistrate or if it can be diverted for treatment or to a community program.
“When a referral comes to the juvenile court we’re trying to determine what is the best avenue for that youth to take through our system where they can receive the most benefits,” said Montgomery County Juvenile Court Administrator Eric Shafer. “Typically if a youth is charged with a violent offense, which would be considered a felony if they were an adult, their case is going to go before a judge or magistrate depending on the severity and the incident.”
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
If the case goes before a judge and the juvenile is found responsible for the offense, they’re adjudicated.
In 2018 and 2019, juvenile court received 6,191 and 5,734 referrals, respectively.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, referrals dropped to 4,480 in 2020 and 4,940 in 2021. Last year, Montgomery County Juvenile Court received 6,713 referrals. This year, the court has recorded 3,298 referrals through the end of May.
The vast majority of referrals are for delinquency and unruliness, which includes truancy, curfew violations and kids running away.
This year there has been one referral for homicide, four for murder, 10 for rape and 18 for robbery.
Some juvenile crimes have shocked the community.
A young man was arrested last month after he allegedly threw a cat off a bridge into a creek bed in Harrison Twp., and video of the incident circulated on social media.
Kettering police arrested a 14-year-old boy in May after the freshman allegedly posted a school shooting threat on social media, which led to the cancellation of all classes at Fairmont High School.
A 14-year-old Dayton boy died last year after he was shot in the head by his teenage brother, allegedly as they took photos to post on social media.
‘Society shut down on these children’
Last year, there were 1,168 adjudications, including 1,129 for delinquency and unruliness, one homicide, eight rapes and 30 robberies.
Shafer noted that while referrals and adjudications have been increasing during the last year and a half, cases are close to pre-pandemic levels.
“I think because we’re coming from a pandemic timeframe where lots of staff and law enforcement were used to a certain number over a two-year period of time, it feels like it’s a lot more,” he said. “I don’t think that it’s anything that would be completely out of the ordinary.”
During the pandemic juvenile court was only hearing cases remotely for a few months and law enforcement were arresting fewer people, Shafer added.
“It’s hard to compare those two years because coming out of the pandemic was also a different time,” he said.
As the region continues to recover from the pandemic, Shafer said juvenile court faces new challenges.
During the pandemic, children attended school virtually and some families struggled with housing and employment.
“I think a lot of those challenges and the normal things that were available to kids changed for a two-year period and are just now getting back to the way things were,” Shafer said.
Judge Wallace said the pandemic resulted in the shutting down of schools, recreational activities, counseling and community services and other supports that children rely on outside of the home.
“I think some of the behavior we’re seeing is a result of not having the normal socialization that kids normally get,” she said. “You take two years of development away from a child and all of sudden everything opens back up, I think it might be understandable that there’s a delay in social skills and proper behavior and maybe in needs that have not been addressed ... Our whole society shut down on these children.”
Risk factors
Risk factors that can contribute to juvenile delinquency include poor supervision and low levels of parental involvement in the kids’ lives, says the December 2022 Youth and Juvenile Justice System report by the National Center for Juvenile Justice.
Kids who grow up in a single-parent household also are at a higher risk of delinquency and criminal activities.
Research also suggests that there is a connection between poverty and crime, and young people who grow up in families or communities with limited resources are more likely to commit criminal offenses than kids who grew up in more privileged circumstances, the report says.
Many young people who face delinquency charges in juvenile court were previously in the child welfare system because they were part of an abuse, neglect or dependency case, Wallace said.
She said this usually means that something painful and traumatic happened to them. Maltreatment and child abuse can impact development, emotional regulation and behavior.
Juvenile court screens youth to determine if they have mental health or substance abuse issues or other problems or needs that can be helped through intervention and services, Wallace said.
For some kids, ending up in the juvenile justice system is the “wake-up call” they need to get their lives back on track, Wallace said.
Intervention
In most cases, underage offenders who go through diversion programs and who receive intervention, supports and services do not reoffend, she said.
With the majority of juvenile cases being diverted to alternative programs, the court works with multiple community partners to help connect youth and families to appropriate programs or resources.
Shafer cited Functional Family Therapy as one of the main programs the court has invested in for diverted cases.
“It’s basically a home-based counseling service where therapists go and meet with families in their home,” he said. “They work through different levels of therapy to engage families and help them find solutions to what they’re facing.”
Shafer said diverting cases also allows the court to expedite services and connect families to resources more quickly.
Juvenile court uses an assessment program to determine if a juvenile is at a low risk of reoffending.
“Most of the kids that are diverted are low-risk first-time offenders,” he said. “We know that we can successfully divert those cases into programs and our numbers show significant success when we do that.”
For cases that are adjudicated, Shafer said youth can be placed in an alternative program and monitored by the court’s probation department.
“Depending on the scenario, the most serious offenses could be committed to the Department of Youth Services, which in Ohio is our juvenile prison system,” he said.
Montgomery County Juvenile Court has two secure treatment options — Montgomery County Center for Adolescent Services in New Lebanon and Juvenile Cognitive Alternative Rehabilitation Effort in downtown Dayton.
Kids make mistakes, and most juvenile offenses can be sealed and expunged because the law recognizes that children should not have to pay for those mistakes for the rest of their lives, court officials said.
“I think we need to wrap (these kids) with love and services, and I do believe that things will get better,” Wallace said.
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