New York's law enforcement leaders know from experience and the research that the hours from 3 to 6 PM on school days are the "prime time for juvenile crime." Nearly seven school-age New York children in every ten live in a household with a single parent who is working or two parents who are both working. On a regular basis, more than 800,000 New York children and teens are left unsupervised by adults. Studies show that after school is the peak time for teens to commit crime, be a victim of crime, be in or cause a car crash and smoke, drink or use drugs. Quality, constructive and highly supervised programs can cut crime immediately and convert after school hours into safe learning time. One high-quality program found that boys left out of the program averaged six times more crimes than teens in the program. A study of Boys & Girls clubs showed that housing projects without the clubs had 50 percent more vandalism and 37 percent worse drug activity. Teens in one California after-school program were half as likely to be rearrested than teens not in the program.

Reports

All Fight Crime: Invest in Kids New York reports on after-school:

"The young man who murdered my son was 26-years-old and lived in Brooklyn and had a long criminal history from the age of 16. My family has often wondrered had that young man had the support and intervention of an after-school program, would his life have been different and would my son be alive?
-Carolee Brooks, Crime Survivor, Brooklyn, NY

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• The single hour most likely for a teen to commit a violent crime-homicide, rape, robbery, or assault-is between 3 PM and 4 PM.
• High school kids commit four out of five juvenile crimes in California.