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 number and rate of juvenile arrests
dropped after 1996. In 2003, 9,307 juveniles were arrested in Maine, virtually the same
as in 2002.

The Maine Crime & Justice Data Book provides additional information on juvenile arrests
through 2002. In that year, males accounted for 73% of all juvenile arrests, down from 77%
in 1993. The only major category of juvenile crime that grew between 1993 and 2002 was
related to alcohol and drug offenses.

 

Data Sources and Context

The data source is the Department of Public Safety’s Crime in Maine 2003 (available
on-line at http://www.maine.gov/dps/cim/crime_in_maine/2003.pdf. 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.

The 2003 Maine Crime & Justice Data Book 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 Data
Book is available on-line at: http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/justiceresearch/Reports.htm.