Here’s How Many NH Youths Are Being Arrested

CONCORD — A recent ranking of the states by juvenile crime rates puts New Hampshire near the bottom of the national list, in 44th place.

The research team at Frontpoint Security used data from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention from 2017, to find the number of arrests made per 100,000 young people. Frontpoint broke the data into two sections: juvenile larceny, which is the act of stealing without threatening anyone, and juvenile robbery, which is the act of stealing by force or threat.

In 2017, New Hampshire had a total of 14 juvenile robbery arrests and 309 juvenile larceny arrests per 100,000 youths aged 10 to 17 — for a total of 323 arrests per 100,000 youths. That put the Granite State 44th nationwide in the juvenile theft rate.

Frontpoint calculated that 60 of every 100,000 youths nationwide were arrested for robbery, and 527 of every 100,000 were arrested for larceny. Maryland had the most juvenile robbery arrests with 205, and Louisiana led the way in juvenile larceny arrests with 1,173.

There are many organizations across the country whose mission it is to help young people who enter the legal system. The groups argue that rehabilitation is the best possible course of action, instead of a life of incarceration.

The Children’s Defense Fund is one of these organizations committed to the rehabilitation of young people who come in contact with the juvenile justice system.

“They are entitled to adequate legal representation and a response that is age-appropriate, developmentally-appropriate, culturally-responsive, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed in the least restrictive, most safe-setting in order to facilitate rehabilitation, promote healing, ensure positive youth development, and reduce recidivism.”

Here are the ten states with the highest juvenile theft rate:

1. Maryland
2. Louisiana
3. Wisconsin
4. Florida
5. Minnesota
6. Delaware
7. South Dakota
8. Iowa
9. South Carolina
10. Nevada

On the other end, West Virginia had the lowest juvenile larceny arrest rate, with 151 out of 100,000 youth arrested, and Vermont had the lowest juvenile robbery arrest rate, with only two arrests out of 100,000.

Overall, juvenile delinquency is trending downwards nationwide. In 2017, U.S. juvenile courts handled the fewest number of cases since the mid-1970’s, according to Frontier Security.