The News 5 Crime Solutions Task Force has been investigating juvenile crime. We wanted to know just how bad the problem is in our area and what we can do about it? So, we took our questions to those on the front lines.

Mobile County Juvenile Court Judge Edmond Naman says we have a real problem on our hands, "we are seeing an increase in violence in our schools, in our middle schools, among middle school age children and it's a problem that we really need to address," said Naman.

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Naman sees juvenile crime cases everyday, but what he's seen recently really concerns him,"I'm not going to say that we have a vast increase in the number of criminal cases or violent cases but what really troubles me is that were seeing an increase in the number of criminal, you know, violent crimes committed by young people and when I say young people, I'm talking about younger than 16 years of age," said Naman.

Lieutenant Carlos Thompson is in charge of criminal investigations for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, he says juvenile crime is actually down in the county. But, there is one area where he's seeing an increase and he says it's alarming, "for the past two years, 2006, 2007, we definitely saw an area that concerns us. The number of incidents where juveniles were arrested in these cases were quite alarming, in the domestic violence arena," said Thompson.

2007 Juvenile Crime in Mobile County

And when it come to children and crime, family life plays a role, "what were seeing is a lot of disconnect from the family that's always been an issue with juvenile crime, the break down of the family, so, that's a really big area of concern," said Thompson.




So what do we do to protect our kids and our community? "It is going to take our churches, our community leaders, our politicians, but more importantly, its just that person in the community that cares about kids that wants to make a difference and will not let us fail," said Naman.

Mobile County Arrests in last 12 Month Involving Drugs:

• Possession of Alcohol - 66
  
• Marijuana Possession - 184
  
• Felony Marijuana Distribution - 42
  
• Possession of Controlled Substance - 77
  
• Distribution of Controlled Substance - 15
  
• llegal Possession of Prescription Drugs - 6