| Six Highest Juvenile Incarceration Rates (per 100,000) | |||
| State | Ages 10-15 | State | All Youth |
| SD | 373 | SD | 672 |
| WY | 334 | DC | 671 |
| DC | 294 | WY | 559 |
| AL | 201 | AK | 430 |
| SC | 185 | CO | 397 |
| IN | 183 | FL | 397 |
| Six Lowest Juvenile Incarceration Rates | |||
| IL | 62 | ME | 152 |
| NJ | 50 | NH | 148 |
| VT | 50 | NC | 144 |
| NM | 47 | MS | 128 |
| HI | 36 | HI | 92 |
| ME | 33 | VT | 81 |
SD Department of Corrections Director of Juvenile Services Doug Herrman says he's not surprised, but I am. The only place close to us on any of the numbers is the District of Columbia, the very sort of metropolitan madhouse we country folks like to think we are nothing like. Otherwise, there's a big gap between our numbers and those of any other state.
Explanations, anyone? I think I can hear some readers wondering about "those darn Indians" skewing our numbers, but New Mexico is Indian Country, too, and they're down at the bottom of the list. Low-scoring Hawaii, too, has a large native population... although when it's 80 degrees and you can go surfing every day, why would anyone commit crime?
Is juvenile crime really that bad in South Dakota, or do we just have a uniquely tough "cuff 'em and stuff 'em" philosophy toward our kids? Sioux Falls Juvenile Detention Center Director Todd Cheever suggests in that Sioux Falls paper that our high numbers might be a result of a focus on deterrence. Go after the kids now, give them a taste of life in a cage, and maybe they stay out of trouble later.
Maybe that philosophy is working: these Bureau of Justice statistics (see page 17—PDF alert!) show South Dakota's overall incarceration rate is 432 per 100K, below the national rate of 509 per 100K. We're below the national rate for males (767/100K here, 957/100K nationally), but above the national rate for female prisoners (99/100K here, 69/100K nationally). Hmm... perhaps the DoC's motto is "Women and Children First!"
I have no problem with holding miscreants of any age accountable. Crime shold come with time of some sort. But with youth incarceration rates this much higher than the rest of the country, South Dakota (not just the nanny state, but every one of us) needs to take a serious look at what's pushing so many kids into the correctional system. Maybe we can figure out how to keep them from going there in the first place.
most of your nations problems start with these parents and communities that think discipline is abuse when it is not. this is why our children are running wild. everyone is so afraid of abuse charges that no one is controlling their children!! Start disciplining your children and this kind of thing would be in better numbers.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree any more with anon 11:04 a.m. Parents are not taking care of their problems at home. They are calling the cops and wanting the judicial system to raise the kids.
ReplyDeleteThe way I look at it is at least South Dakota is first in something!
I do agree that if there is troubles with a juveniles it usually stems from their parents but come on people... It has to do with our greatly with our population. Cops are not out looking for big parties to bust in largely populated states; they are worried about the actual criminals that are a threat to society. In small populated cities in South Dakota the cops are out looking for the trouble making juveniles that are just trying to find something to do in this state. Sadly enough it has to do with drinking. For most kids it is a phase in their lives and they move on. Minors in consumption should not be a arrest.
ReplyDeleteHang on, Anon 11:48 -- I agree, parents need to keep a firm hand on the tiller... but I thought South Dakota parents were still more traditional, less susceptible to the perhaps softer parenting trends. Am I mistaken?
ReplyDeleteAnd Anon 1:39: Is the problem purely more law enforcement attention... or is some of it higher rates of drinking among our youth than youth elsewhere? If the latter is the case, then again, what's different about our state to cause that problem?
After having lived in Miami Beach, I can state with absolute confidence that kids here are angels by comparison to kids there.
ReplyDeleteIt was common for 15-year-olds to shoot each other in Greater Miami. "Don't like some kid on the other side of the causeway? Just steal a car and go over there and blow him away, man." You would look in the kid's eyes and just get the chills as you realized: Nobody is driving this bus.
I tend to agree with Anon 1:39 PM, but I think the issue is a good deal more complicated. To some extent the "bar for bad behavior" is high in Miami and low here. Some offenses considered serious here would be laughed off down there. I suspect the same is true for Los Angeles, where I also had the mixed fortune to spend some of my life.
And Hawaii? Doggone right you are, Cory. They even had songs about everything in life going bad but "So what? Can't be depressed with blue skies and warm surf and fair island breezes. Go out and hit the waves, cuz'." (But why doesn't the same formula work in Miami or Los Angeles? Too many people and not enough space, maybe. Dickensian poverty, maybe. Lack of parenting, maybe. Bad schools, maybe. All of the above, maybe.)
Perhaps if more kids got into heavy-duty athletic activities, especially the ones that make 'em totally tired at the end of the day, they'd be less inclined to get rowdy in destructive ways. But then I suspect our juvenile justice apparatus could adopt a more humanistic (that does not mean permissive!) attitude without turning South Dakota into a crime zone.
Since I've lived in the middle of South Dakota for the last 13 years, I have to say that the rate is mostly because of police attention is focused often on juvinal crime. If you will check out the FBI's Uniform Crime Report you will see that South Dakota have comparativly little crime per capita. Also is you can get kids turned around at an earlier age you may have stopped a career criminal from developing.
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