Nationwide

By Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News

May 27, 2025

GULF SHORES Ala. Property crimes including vehicle break-ins, burglaries, and thefts rise during school summer vacations and holiday breaks according to law enforcement and a recent study done in 2023.

Juvenile crime tends to increase during the summer months due to several factors, including increased opportunities, less supervision, and potential involvement in risky activities. Studies show a significant rise in offenses like theft, drug/alcohol violations, and curfew violations during summer breaks.

While school breaks themselves don’t necessarily lead to crime, research suggests that school absences, particularly suspensions, and the changes in routines associated with school breaks can increase the risk of juvenile crime.

No doubt you’ve probably heard the old saying “”idle hands are the devil’s workshop” which does play into crime trends, especially property crimes.

While juvenile crimes do increase over winter and holiday breaks, a more substantial increase happens during the much longer summer break which can be between 10 to 12 weeks, which is roughly 2.5 to 3 months.
That’s a long time for many teenagers to keep themselves busy especially in home environments where both parents work or in a single-parent household.

Sometimes teens are involved in crimes of opportunities where they find themselves facing temptations, such as with keys being left in the ignition of a motor vehicle or a neighborhood house with open windows. Of course, neither one of those situations gives anyone the right to commit a crime, but it does allow the teens to face certain decisions that they’ve never faced before and sometimes they make the wrong one.

For decades, law enforcement has known that the hours immediately after school, or on certain school breaks, when parents are less likely to be available to provide supervision, are the times when kids are more likely to commit or be victims of crime or to engage in risky behaviors.
Whether it’s committing crimes themselves or being victims of crime, teens who go unsupervised for long periods of time, do find themselves in situations that may be difficult for them to overcome.

One study showed that 26 percent of juvenile crimes occur between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. during the school year and 35 percent increase in juvenile crimes during the months of June, July, and August and that frequent offenses included assault, theft, and drug-related crimes, robberies, burglaries and even homicide.

There are four main types of juvenile delinquency — individual, group-supported, organized, and situational. Individual delinquency refers to one child committing an act on his or her own, with the argument that delinquency is caused by family problems.

However, another growing trend among juveniles is “gang affiliation. Often such gangs are locally grown, neighborhood gangs made up of teens 15-20 years old and as young as 12 or younger. They mainly seek to control a neighborhood, a street block or replicate what larger gangs such as the Crips, Bloods, MS-13, or others are known for, selling drugs, or committing robberies and murders.
Young children today are carrying firearms in big cities and rural communities and participating in violent crimes.

Supervision, discipline, and love are the keys to preventing children from going from being on the right track to falling off the track.
During school breaks and longer summer vacations, it’s important to be part of the child’s daily life, knowing their schedule and whereabouts and who they’re spending time with, and showing them love and your concern for their safety and well-being at all times.

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