Sack Schiraldi? That’s not the answer to juvenile crime (or even the right question)

In 2017, Baltimore saw an uptick in the arrests of juvenile offenders. Newspaper headlines warned of juvenile crime being “out of control.” Incidents in October of that year ranged from police finding a 15-year-old with a loaded pistol around the Inner Harbor to a group of Homeland trick-or-treaters having their candy stolen by teens — who pistol whipped an adult who tried to intervene. Given the city’s homicide woes (and the spike in violence overall since the 2015 Freddie Gray riots), the level of alarm was hardly surprising.