NCJ Number
249526
Date Published
2014
Length
92 pages
Annotation
This 2014 Maine Crime and Justice Data Book presents data on the State's crime and justice indicators, using the most recent public safety, corrections, and court data.
Abstract
Data are disaggregated to county levels where possible and stratified by crime type and offender age and gender. Regarding crime data, Maine had a 1.5- percent decrease in Index crimes between 2011 and 2012, which is more than the nationwide average decline of 0.7 percent. Over the past 10 years, however, Maine's overall Index crime rate increased by 2.3 percent. The average number of homicides has increased over the last 5 years; and since 2010, Maine's rate of reported rapes per 100,000 people has been higher than the national average. In 2012, property crime composed 95.3 percent of all Index crimes in Maine, the highest proportion in the Nation. Regarding arrest findings, the number of arrests for violent crime decreased 7.5 percent between 2003 and 2012. The percentage of arrests of females increased for the 10th consecutive year. Over the last 10 years, juveniles accounted for an increasingly smaller share of all arrests. Findings on courts and corrections show that the number of criminal filings in superior court declined 39.4 percent in 5 years. Maine continues to have the lowest adult incarceration rate per capita in the Nation; however, the number of adult inmates under the jurisdiction of State correctional authorities has increased 12.9 percent in 10 years. The 1-year recidivism rate in 2012 (rearrest for a felony or misdemeanor) among adult probationers was the second lowest between 2004 and 2012. Of all youth placed on probation between 2009 and 2011, 26 percent were re-adjudicated for a new offense committed within 1 year of the start of supervision. Extensive tables and figures