Crimes committed by juveniles across Santa Clara County continued to rise in 2017, according to a new report.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office noted that crime rates are generally low given the size of the county, but there has been an uptick in violent crime, partly due to juveniles. More than half of busted juveniles are repeat offenders, according to the district attorney's office.
When examining crimes committed by juveniles this past year compared to the year before, the district attorney's office found that robberies rose 21 percent, car burglaries increased 51 percent, assaults jumped 59 percent, home burglaries surged 128 percent and carjackings soared 250 percent.
The Mercury News reported that one reason why juvenile crime surged was due to a group of youths called the "Lash Money Gang," which has been behind a number of robberies. San Jose police recently cracked down on the group with two rounds of arrests earlier this year.
While the San Jose Police Department has started to hire more officers, the district attorney's office reported that the department is still lean. The South Bay city has just nine officers per 10,000 people. For the sake of comparison, Oakland has 17 officers per 10,000 people. San Francisco boasts almost 26 officers per 10,000 residents. New York City has 41 officers per that same population amount.
