The Missing Piece: How Support, Not Punishment, Can Reduce Crime

By Margot Isman

In a recent Philadelphia Magazine op-ed, former mayoral candidate and City Council member Allan Domb congratulated the new Mayoral Administration for the significant decrease in crime, crediting the appointment of Kevin Bethel as Police Commissioner. But there’s a critical piece of the story that’s missing: the downward trend in crime, including youth crime, began well before Mayor Parker or Commissioner Bethel took office. According to The Pew Charitable Trust’s 2024 State of the City Report, homicides have decreased by 27% since 2021—a decline that started years before this administration’s tenure.

While it’s true that overall crime in Philadelphia spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, crime has been on a steady decline for years. Violent crime involving young people follows this same trend, despite its disproportionate media coverage. If we step back and examine the last decade, the pandemic’s impact on crime looks more like a temporary disruption than a long-term trend. Yet, this brief uptick continues to shape our public discourse and influence the strategies of our politicians, particularly when it comes to young people.

The reality is that youth under 18 represent a small fraction—less than 10%—of violent crime, as Commissioner Bethel recently pointed out in an interview with Fox29. But instead of recognizing this and building on the progress we’ve made, too many of our leaders continue to push punitive measures that target our youth, like charging kids as if they were adults and holding them in adult prisons. This harmful practice is especially common among those most in need of support. 

If we are serious about sustaining the decline in youth crime, we need to ask ourselves why this downward trend has occurred. What have we done right, and how can we build on these successes to reach even more young people? 

At the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP) we see every day what works to support kids who are in conflict with the law – especially those charged as adults. When YSRP co-founder, Lauren Fine, asked young people who had been incarcerated in Philadelphia what they needed to feel safe, their answer was clear: resources and support, not more police or harsher penalties.

We must listen to young people—the true experts who live this reality daily. Decades of research show that investment in communities, not punitive policing, is what truly reduces crime, especially among youth. The recent decline in crime coincides with the reopening of schools, rec centers, and community programs closed during the pandemic. This is not a coincidence.

As Domb mentions in his piece, Commissioner Bethel’s use of diversion programs within the Philadelphia School District is a step in the right direction. These programs, which divert students from the criminal legal system and into support services, have dramatically reduced school arrests. But we need to go further. Currently, these programs are only available to students involved in low-level offenses. The youth who need these resources the most—those facing more serious charges—are often excluded. 

When a kid picks up a gun or harms someone, they don’t stop being a kid. We should be doubling down on investing care and resources into these youth – not excluding them. It is backwards to focus our efforts only on kids facing minor offenses: we should prioritize resources and support according to need as we expand efforts to include young people with the most significant challenges. 

The greatest loss during the pandemic was the erosion of our social fabric and sense of community. Now is the time to rebuild it, focusing on the neighborhoods and young people who need it most. If Commissioner Bethel successfully expands his effective school diversion program citywide, it could significantly free up resources in the juvenile justice system.  These resources, which are intended to support evidence-based programming and rehabilitation, could then be reallocated to focus on a more data-driven response for children charged with the most serious offenses – those currently prosecuted as adults. 

By reducing the number of young people in the system for low-level offenses, we can redirect efforts toward diverting children charged with serious offenses from the brutally harmful adult system. A vast body of research shows that kids charged as adults have worse outcomes – for themselves and for public safety – than similarly situated kids who are treated as kids.

The Parker administration has a unique opportunity to change course, listen to young people’s voices, and invest in our city’s future – by truly treating all kids as kids. If we are committed to reducing youth crime and using data and evidence to do it, we need to stop relying on outdated, punitive approaches and start investing in the strategies that we know work. 

The data is clear: young people thrive when they are supported, not criminalized. Treating young people as adults is harmful to them, to their communities, and to public safety. It’s time to let evidence drive us to meet young people where they are—by providing the resources and opportunities they need to succeed right in their communities.