What's happening with our teens? Average age at arrest in Macon-Bibb may surprise you

Over the Christmas holiday, teens and one adult were behind a rash of burglaries in the area of Pasadena, Commodore and Paige drives as well as in other locales across the county.

The teens organized the crimes, according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.

And those burglaries were indicative of 2017 crime trends related to young teens that sheriff's officials shared with the Macon-Bibb County Council of Clergy at its luncheon meeting this week. The Telegraph also obtained additional statistics on teen crime.

Last year, juveniles accounted for 23 percent of all burglary arrests in Macon-Bibb County, according to the sheriff's office. Georgia law defines a juvenile offender as age 16 and under. That's 32 teens arrested on burglary charges, compared to 107 adults arrested for burglary, explained Bibb County sheriff's Lt. Sean DeFoe.

Also, teens ages 16 and under accounted for 51 percent of all arrests for auto theft in Macon-Bibb last year. That's 23 young teens arrested for auto theft, compared to 22 adults charged with the same crime.

And teens 16 and under accounted for 32 percent of all arrests for weapons offenses. That's 18 young teens arrested for weapon offenses compared to 39 adults arrested for the same crime.

Additionally, juveniles accounted for 19 percent of all arrests for rapes in Macon-Bibb last year. That's three juveniles arrested on a rape charge compared to 13 adults arrested on the same charge.

Moreover, the average age of juveniles at arrest in Macon-Bibb in 2017 was 14 1/2 years old, the statistics show.

This past weekend, a 16-year-old was charged as an adult with murder in the choking of his older sister. No juvenile arrests for murder were recorded in 2017, said Bibb County Sheriff's spokeswoman Sgt. Linda Howard.

However, while the trends are troubling, total juvenile arrests were only 4.62 percent of all arrests in Macon-Bibb last year, statistics show. In all, 266 teens 16 and under were arrested, compared to 5,496 adults arrested.

Bibb County Sheriff David Davis says that people can be nosy neighbors and report suspicious activity to help stem the tide of certain crimes like burglaries, but the violence erupting in the community goes deeper than that.

"How can you be in a living room when a brother chokes out his sister? How can you be on a random street when a 15-year-old is walking down a street and gets accosted?" Davis asked outside the meeting. "Those are the things that speak to deeper things in the community that we all need to work together to solve."

Those at the meeting were challenged by fellow clergy to come up with ways that churches can work with the sheriff's office to reduce crime as well as with ways that the sheriff's office can help churches curb crime.

Overall, only 24 fewer crimes were reported in 2017, compared to 2016. Violent crimes were up compared to the previous year, while property crimes such as burglary were down.

This story was originally published February 7, 2018 at 6:45 PM with the headline "What's happening with our teens? Average age at arrest in Macon-Bibb may surprise you."