Alarming Rise in Carjacking by Juveniles in DC

Liam Bissainthe has this post at Liberty Unyielding, reporting that carjacking in DC is up 600% over 2019. The post cites this report from WTOP on October 3, reporting that as of that date there had been 750 carjackings in 2023, 75% of them involving guns. Nearly two-thirds of the persons arrested for carjacking to that date were juveniles.

Why do so many DC juveniles commit this violent crime?

Bissainthe posits that the primary reason is the lack of consequences.

This happening because teenage carjackers know that even if they are caught, they will be treated very leniently. In 2021, two teenage girls aged 13 and 15 carjacked and killed an Uber Eats Driver in Washington, DC, a crime for which they received only juvenile detention, not prison. Juveniles often do only a short stint in juvenile detention for violence or serious crimes that would land an adult in prison for a substantial period of time.