Indicator: 50 - Youth Arrests
Why This Is Important
Families and parents pass on to their children values about what
is right and wrong. These values are reinforced, or not, by a child's
peers and his or her community. How often young people are arrested
is an indicator of how well parents, families and the community
have raised a child to act responsibly, according to the rules of
the community.
Where We Stand
After rising during the first half of the 1990's, the juvenile
arrest rate dropped after 1996. In 2000, Maine had a rate of 68.3
arrests per 1,000 children aged 10-17.
The Maine Crime & Justice Data Book provides additional information
on juvenile arrests through 1999. In that year, males accounted
for three-quarters of all juvenile arrests, and 69% of the arrests
involved adolescents over age 14.
Data Sources and Context
The data source is the Maine Kids Count 2002 Data Book, which analyzes
data from the Maine Department of Public Safety's Uniform Crime
Reports, 2000. Numbers include all arrests of children aged 10-17
for crimes including manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault,
burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, forgery and counterfeiting,
fraud, stolen property, vandalism, possession of a weapon, prostitution,
sex offenses, drug and alcohol related offenses, violation of liquor
laws, driving under the influence, drunkenness, disorderly conduct,
and curfew and loitering law violations. The annual arrest data
counts all arrests of youth for offenses during the calendar year,
including repeated offenses by the same individual. Rate is the
number of arrests divided by the estimated number of 10-17 year-olds
in a calendar year, using data prepared by the Office of Data, Research,
and Vital Statistics. The Kids Count Data Book is available on-line
at http://www.mekids.org.
The Maine Crime & Justice Databook is a product of the Maine
Statistical Analysis Center, a cooperative project of the Maine
Department of Corrections and the Institute for Public Sector Innovation
at the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School. The Databook
is available on-line at http://www.muskie.usm.maine.edu/justiceresearch/databook.htm.
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