A new report from The Sentencing Project debunks the myth of a post-pandemic crime wave fueled by young people.

In March, Congress held a hearing about a spike in carjackings in big cities like Chicago, but the report showed a drop in overall robberies by youth in 2020, and a drop in the share of crime committed by young people over the past 20 years.

Tara Raines, visiting assistant professor of psychology at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, said we need not fear children traumatized by the pandemic; we need to help them.

"We need to use strategies that have been proven to work: restorative, positive-behavior support strategies," Raines urged. "Instead of falling back on fear and punitive measures of discipline."

State crime figures show Nevada saw 246 murders in 2021, and in 6%, the person responsible was under age 18. And so far in 2022, youths made up only 5.8% of property crime arrests.

Youth accused of minor crimes in Nevada are often diverted to a juvenile assessment center, where they and their family can get counseling.

Richard Mendel, senior research fellow for The Sentencing Project and the report's author, said locking teens up often backfires on society, making them more likely to reoffend, not less.

"This is not a moment to be panicking about youth crime," Mendel contended. "Especially if that panic is going to lead us to embrace solutions that we know the evidence shows does not work."

The Sentencing Project recommends placing fewer police officers on campus and investing more in mental-health services and after-school programs for teens.

It can be challenging for parents and caregivers to shield their children from bigotry and hatred online, but there are a few tips they can follow.

Lindsay Schubiner, Momentum program director at the Western States Center, said the work is especially crucial because white nationalist groups are using the internet to recruit people.

She pointed out young people are developing identities and ideas in relationship to everything around them, including what they see and hear online.

"As hate violence and threats to democracy continue and bigotry and conspiracy theories reach further into the mainstream, young people see that, and it has an impact," Schubiner asserted. "It's really important for parents and caregivers to provide an open space to critically examine what all of that means to them and to their future and to their values."

About 45% of middle and high school students said they have been the victim of cyberbullying, according to a survey from the Cyberbullying Research Center. The survey also showed cyberbullying has been increasing over the past decade.

Schubiner stressed vigilance is the first key to ensuring kids are staying safe online. She noted for example, hate groups use jokes minimizing violence, scapegoating or straw man arguments to manipulate people online, tactics she said both kids and parents need to be aware of.

"Helping them to recognize the kinds of strategies that are intended to influence them can be a really powerful way to push back against this," Schubiner emphasized.

Schubiner encouraged parents and caregivers to listen openly and non-judgmentally to their kids' about their online experiences. She cautioned cutting off access to friends or to the internet can backfire because many white nationalists manipulate followers into seeing it as evidence of "political correctness" and attempts to curb free speech.

Schubiner added a better approach is to enlist people your child trusts.

"Really lean on relationships and relationships that the young person has with either older peers or other adults who share inclusive and equitable values," Schubiner recommended.

A grim reminder is out - that Arizona could be doing more to keep its youngest residents safe and healthy.

The state's 29th annual Child Fatality Report says a total of 863 Arizona children died last year - and almost half of those deaths were considered preventable.

They include fatalities from abuse and neglect, COVID-19, drowning, firearm injuries - as well as substance-related causes, and sudden unexpected infant deaths. And all increased last year compared to 2020.

Dr. Mary Rimsza - the medical director of the Child Fatality Review program of the Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and chair of the review team - said it's unusual to see such a substantial increase, but this tragic information is useful.

"Frankly," said Rimsza, "a major purpose of us doing this report is to identify preventable deaths and to make recommendations on how future deaths can be prevented. That is our mission."

The report says Arizona's child mortality rate increased 4.7% from 2020 to 2021, and it's higher among boys than among girls.

In 2021, 31 children's deaths were attributed to COVID-19, compared to 12 in 2020.

Another category with an alarming increase was drowning - the rate jumped 108%. And in substance-related deaths, poisoning was the leading factor.

Of the 49 child poisoning fatalities Rimsza said 46 were opiate overdoses, and fentanyl was responsible for 44 of them.

"The deaths due to fentanyl and other opiate overdoses, most all the opiate deaths in children were due to fentanyl," said Rimsza. "It is a huge problem in our state. It is a very tragic event - oftentimes, it could be the first time a young person tried a drug."

Rimsza added that the message to Arizona families is that there are many steps families can take to prevent a tragedy - from ensuring safe sleep environments for infants, to making sure pool areas are supervised and well fenced, to storing firearms safely and securely.

The report contains a full list of recommendations.

In just two months, it should be easier for providers of children's services in Pennsylvania's child-welfare and foster-care system to get the liability insurance they need. Governor Tom Wolf signed a bill into law that outlines who takes responsibility when an incident or accident occurs in the child-welfare system.

Some counties' contracts require the private children's service provider to take full responsibility, even when they are not at fault.

Samea Kim, vice president for Legal & Public Affairs at the Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth & Family Services said as a result, the private providers have had trouble getting affordable, quality liability coverage - and this should make it easier for them to do so.

"This bill would allow the agency to take ownership of something that may have come up, if it was within the scope of what they did. Otherwise, if it was something related to the county, then the county would be able to take responsibility for their own actions," Kim said.

Kim added under the current system, providers were making insurance payouts even in cases when they were not at fault, because the county contract requires the provider to take liability. The new law goes into effect February 1. There are nearly 15,000 children in Pennsylvania's child-welfare system.

Laura Maines, CEO of Every Child, Inc., a nonprofit adoption and foster care organization based in Pittsburgh, said groups like hers have faced limited liability insurance coverage options and high premium costs, driven in part by the contracts that require private providers to indemnify government agencies in any situation. So, they advocated for House Bill 2214.

"This is about fairness," Maines said. "This is about accountability. This is really about partnership and service continuity. And so, what [HB] 2214 does is it says if there is any language in a public foster care contract or child welfare contract that seeks to transfer 100% of the risk to the private agency, it's unenforceable."

Maines added professional liability insurance protects the agency if something happens to a child and there is a claim brought against their agency.