The majority of the MBT attacks are being perpetrated by youth. These range from attacks perpetrated by an individual 14-year-old boy to those committed by an entire mob of teenagers, male and female. The way to solve the pattern of crime on the Metropolitan Branch Trail is by creating programs that target the people committing the crimes: the youth. In order to address the cause of the attacks, we need to begin by funding more useful and productive ways for DC teens to spend their time.
One recent attack, in which a 16-year-old stole $1 before asking his victim to get him more cash from a nearby ATM, suggests that many of the crimes on the MBT are occurring simply because some youth are broke and bored. A bicyclist who was clothes-lined on the trail by four teenagers in October 2012 reported that he thought "they mostly just wanted to cause suffering for fun."
In 2012, approximately 1 in 4 DC youth lived below the poverty line. When children are living in poverty and lack resources to attend summer camp, go to the movies, or pursue enrichment activities, they resort to their own devices. In some cases, this means engaging in criminal activity. It is the city's responsibility to support these children by providing alternate activities, ideally activities that enable the teenagers to earn some spending money. I argue the best way to do this is by improving and expanding a program that already exists with this goal in mind: the DC Summer Youth Employment Program.
In 2014, the DC Summer Youth Employment Program provided 12,500 of DC’s youth with worthwhile ways to spend their summer—while earning a bit of money at the same time. This program has been applauded for keeping DC kids busy doing useful work, ranging from making sandwiches to recording oral histories, for 35 years. But in recent years the program has been underfunded, with a budget shifting from $34 million in 2010 to $11.7 million in 2013. That means a large number of youth who could benefit from a program like this may not have the opportunity due to funding limitations. The attrition rate is also high, coming in at 19% in 2011. If 1 in 5 participants are quitting after receiving their first paycheck, what are they doing with their time for the rest of the summer? In addition, a 2010 study conducted by Brandeis University reported that many supervisors affiliated with the summer jobs program were reluctant to hire youth under 18 years of age. According to their study, “the process of obtaining supervisor background checks was not organized or efficient, and this turned off many worksites.” This means that many of the youth committing the crimes on the MBT—youth under 18 years of age—are not benefitting from the Summer Youth Employment Program at all.
While good in theory, this program needs to improve and expand in order to reduce the criminal activity that youth are pursuing in their free time. First of all, the program needs to attract and fund more youth and streamline its systems so younger youth can also be hired. Second of all, it needs to expand to continue into the school year so that youth whose summer jobs do not turn into long-term part-time employment have decent alternatives. Not all youth are going to join a sports team or go straight home and do their homework at the end of the school day. An expanded version of the Youth Summer Employment Program can provide more teens with worthwhile after-school activities -- activities that can help them earn some spending money so they can go to the movies instead of harrassing bike commuters on the MBT.
One recent attack, in which a 16-year-old stole $1 before asking his victim to get him more cash from a nearby ATM, suggests that many of the crimes on the MBT are occurring simply because some youth are broke and bored. A bicyclist who was clothes-lined on the trail by four teenagers in October 2012 reported that he thought "they mostly just wanted to cause suffering for fun."
In 2012, approximately 1 in 4 DC youth lived below the poverty line. When children are living in poverty and lack resources to attend summer camp, go to the movies, or pursue enrichment activities, they resort to their own devices. In some cases, this means engaging in criminal activity. It is the city's responsibility to support these children by providing alternate activities, ideally activities that enable the teenagers to earn some spending money. I argue the best way to do this is by improving and expanding a program that already exists with this goal in mind: the DC Summer Youth Employment Program.
In 2014, the DC Summer Youth Employment Program provided 12,500 of DC’s youth with worthwhile ways to spend their summer—while earning a bit of money at the same time. This program has been applauded for keeping DC kids busy doing useful work, ranging from making sandwiches to recording oral histories, for 35 years. But in recent years the program has been underfunded, with a budget shifting from $34 million in 2010 to $11.7 million in 2013. That means a large number of youth who could benefit from a program like this may not have the opportunity due to funding limitations. The attrition rate is also high, coming in at 19% in 2011. If 1 in 5 participants are quitting after receiving their first paycheck, what are they doing with their time for the rest of the summer? In addition, a 2010 study conducted by Brandeis University reported that many supervisors affiliated with the summer jobs program were reluctant to hire youth under 18 years of age. According to their study, “the process of obtaining supervisor background checks was not organized or efficient, and this turned off many worksites.” This means that many of the youth committing the crimes on the MBT—youth under 18 years of age—are not benefitting from the Summer Youth Employment Program at all.
While good in theory, this program needs to improve and expand in order to reduce the criminal activity that youth are pursuing in their free time. First of all, the program needs to attract and fund more youth and streamline its systems so younger youth can also be hired. Second of all, it needs to expand to continue into the school year so that youth whose summer jobs do not turn into long-term part-time employment have decent alternatives. Not all youth are going to join a sports team or go straight home and do their homework at the end of the school day. An expanded version of the Youth Summer Employment Program can provide more teens with worthwhile after-school activities -- activities that can help them earn some spending money so they can go to the movies instead of harrassing bike commuters on the MBT.