NYC’s ‘Raise the Age’ law results in increase in teen shootings, victims

The New York Post reported that 92 people under 18 have been shot so far in 2025 through the end of September, a 96 percent increase compared to the same period in 2018, the last full year before the law fully went into effect. The number of teen shooting victims is also 21 percent higher than during the same period last year.

The law raised the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 18. Since then, the number of teen shooters has risen 143 percent, as 73 teenagers have been arrested so far in 2025 compared to 30 in the same time span in 2018, and more than the 71 recorded in during the same period in 2024. The surge comes despite citywide shootings dropping 20 percent compared to 2024, and more than 50 percent since 2020, according to NYPD data.

Former NYPD supervisor Chris Hermann said the law has made it harder to hold young offenders accountable for violent crimes.

“We need to somehow tweak Raise the Age so when there’s shooters involved in incidents that they don’t just get a get out of jail free card,” Hermann said, per the Post.

“We want to see them get remanded longer term for gun related crimes,” he explained. “But no politician is going to say ‘Hey, maybe it’s time [to] build a bigger, better juvenile jail.”

Several recent shootings involving teenagers have drawn public attention, including an August shooting in Times Square where a 17-year-old gunman opened fire, wounding three people, and a September incident where a 44-year-old woman was struck by stray gunfire believed to have been fired by a teen.

One particularly notable case involved 18-year-old Damien Calhoun, who was in a gunfight in East Harlem in September and, at the time, was wearing an ankle monitor for an attempted murder charge he received at 17.

“This case in East Harlem is another poster child of what’s going on,” former NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kevin O’Connor said. “You got an 18-year-old wearing an ankle monitor who pleaded guilty to an attempted murder shooting and he’s out. If he pled guilty, why is he out? It’s because of Raise the Age.”

“It’s a complete revolving door,” added O’Connor.