NYC youth crime hits historic highs in 2025 — as some parents blame Raise the Age law

The kids are far from alright.

Youth violence across New York City hit historic highs during 2025, with staggering numbers of shooters and shooting victims falling under the age of 18, NYPD data released Tuesday shows.

Last year, 14% of shooting victims and 18% of shooters were youths, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during an otherwise-triumphant news conference outlining drops in crime.

“These are the highest percentages that we’ve ever seen for both measures since we began tracking this data in 2018,” Tisch said.

The horrific shooting numbers solidified concerns among some parents about New York’s controversial “Raise the Age” law’s effect on youth violence in 2025 — a year otherwise marked by crime hitting historic lows.

Youths pulled the trigger or ended up as innocent victims in several shocking shootings last year, including Damien Calhoun — an 18-year-old who was free on past attempted murder rap because of Raise the Age when he allegedly was involved in a September gunfight.

Jennifer Talbot, whose 17-year-old daughter Anthonaya Campbell was killed by a stray bullet in a Bronx park during August, called the crime stats “depressing.”

Two of the four people charged in Campbell’s shooting were under 18.

“They should change the law and put them in adult court, because they committed an adult crime, and they should know they don’t just get a slap on the wrist,” Talbot, 50, told The Post on Tuesday.

“Maybe they need to bring them into the morgue and let them stand there and take care of the bodies. Let them see something hand-on. Let them see that this is the reality of what you’re putting people through.” 

The law, signed in 2017 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and fully enacted by 2019 amid other Albany-passed criminal justice reforms, raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18.

Raise the Age’s supporters argued New York’s previous status as one of two remaining states that prosecuted 16- and 17-year-olds as adults had prevented youths from being rehabilitated.

But critics charged that the law simply whitewashes the troubling records of many juveniles.

“We are scrubbing, sanitizing entire arrest histories to make it more politically appetizing, give the perception of progress when it comes to youth violence,” a law-enforcement source argued.

Tisch likewise joined the chorus linking the surge in youth offenses to the law.

She argued gangs have been specifically recruiting young members to carry guns for robberies, assaults and shootings, thus shielding older hoodlums from serious consequences.

“Seriously bad things come from a consequence-free environment, and right now juveniles who commit crimes in New York City are living in a virtually consequence-free environment,” she said in June.

But as Tisch unveiled 2025’s crime numbers alongside Mamdani — who is supportive of New York’s criminal justice reforms and has argued Raise the Age’s rehabilitative programs aren’t properly funded — she avoided mentioning the law.

“Addressing youth violence isn’t the work of one unit, one agency or one solution. It requires all of us — family, schools, communities, elected officials and law enforcement — playing our part to keep young people safe,” she said.

She alluded to changes and tweaks that the city’s Administration for Children’s Services and probation departments can make, along with a hint that Albany could take action.

“I’m looking forward to having these conversations with the mayor and with his team, because, as I mentioned, to address the problem of these guns and the victims of this violence, it’s going to take an all-of-city and an all-of-state approach,” she said.

— Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts and Craig McCarthy