Maine's Crime Rate Went Up 5.4% in 2011

It would be interesting to see how the rates correlate with the poverty levels in the states. It could be surmised that crime increases with the unliklihood of earning a living.

Graphic to go with data
Poverty Rate for Northern New England:

NH = 5.6% of population

VT = 7.8%

ME = 12.6 % (more then double the sum of NH)

It's Bush and LePage's fault. Must be true, I saw it on a few liberal websites.

Another aspect to consider is a State’s incarceration rates.

When looking at how many people are locked upper per 100,000 population for Northern New England the following results can be found.

NH has 220 per 100K ranking 47th overall

VT has 260 per 100K ranking 42nd overall

Maine has 151 per 100K with the lowest of the 50 States.

Another trend to look at is the entitlement system that enables rampant drug and alcohol abuse to become the norm as well as a human services department that encourages participants to move here from elswhere.

People who hold down a job and support themselves and family generally have to stay realitively straight in order to keep it.

Mathematically, crime rates, incarceration rates and recipients of the governments largest handouts can be correlated with blacks and hispanics. This is also true for education levels and joblessness. Further proof that government welfare programs have not worked is totally unnecessary when politicians retain their power by their ability to buy votes with money stolen from those of us who earn it. Unfortunately many whites have also climbed on the bandwagon.

The late David Brudnoy,Talk Show host, held a belief that he often spoke about, "Poverty does not cause crime,crime causes poverty" . He said words to the effect, there are communities in Europe,Asia, where people live in abject poverty yet the crime rates are low,almost non existence. If i recall correctly, Brudnoy's point was all the social,anti-poverty programs of the past 3 decades has done nothing to alleviate crime in poverty stricken communities of the United States, it is crime by itself that needs to be address, and the cause of poverty conditions.

Perhaps someone else recalls his on air lectures on "Poverty does not cause crime,crime causes poverty" .and express more of his point.

I'll vote for U's offering in post #5.

........aaaaaaand the crime was all in Lewiston.

But, seriously, crime there has increased considerably over the past 6 months. Given that our crime rate is so much higher than our neighboring states' rates, should we look at the Somali population and how crime has increased since their arrival and coming of age over the past 10 years? They bring many tribal disputes along with them to the US, thus resulting in possible crime. Could this play a role in the increase? Not sure of the answer, just a thought that occurred to me.

Of course it could...

The incarceration data suggests that there are so few minorities in Maine’s prison system that it’s listed as non-applicable. Your “native” Maine people are the ones doing the crimes.

Empire I cannot recite it but remember it.
Thank you for bringing this name up he was one of my favorite radio personalities.
I also loved his take on race,i.e. races tend to center around those of the same their kind.
Of course his refusal to use the term black instead always said negro was classic.

Just wait until we really see Meth take off here in Maine. Meth is the only drug that has spread from West to East in the United States and friends of mine who work as Doctors and Nurses in Drug Rehab are not looking forward what is coming. Imagine a drug that with just one hit there is a 97.9 percent certainty of being addicted. If you think we have burglaries, thefts and assaults now, wait until we hit the big time.

It will be interesting to see if there is any increase in Bath Salts use and it's associated problems in Maine and where it is - in Bangor it has been an issue...I'm wondering if there is any particular reason for that.

Major crime centers geographically.
Biddeford
Portland
Lewiston
Rockland
Skowhegan
Waterville
Bangor

More services more population ease of living and the problems fan out from these centers.
Northern and eastern Maine have their share but it is spread out more.

But there is is little sense to any of it nowadays. These points are sort of transient locals where drugs pass thru and are available.

I do not think Bath salts will be a big problem for long,associated behaviors will scare many even other users away from them.

Stephen is correct racial mix in our institutions low but changing.
Somalis have been a very small number. TH sonly ones I dealt w/ was a case of assault on wife,he thought he was a good muslim man by our standards he was a peace of crap.
Most blacks/hispanics are from NY ,Mass that end up in our jails.

Mike

Could it be the daily influx of 2000-2500 "tourists" that come for the free high?

Bath Salts are a designer drug much like Meth and given the chemical components they smack the user with a delirious high. The physical toll designer drugs take on users is devastating. I heard of one person running a consistent body temp of 106 for a prolonged period of time, cooking brain cells like a crock pot. Bangor seems to have a challenge with Bath Salts, but the original spread slowed down quickly after the word on the streets spread about how the side effects are worse then any other available stimulant.

Maine’s biggest problem currently is the prescription drug addict. The average user of prescription drugs feels safe using the drug because it’s regulated and considered more main stream. It’s rather inconspicuous to have someone popping pills or carrying a pill bottle around. In addition to this false sense of safe use, many addicts became addicted after a routine medical regiment of narcotics.

I heard of a case not too long ago that lead drug investigators out of state where they found an old mercantile building filled with illegally obtained prescription medications waiting be to shipped North by organized criminals. If this was a truthful account, given the source, it would suggest that organized criminals have even seen the demand in Maine and made adjustments to their supply.

Even if the prescription drug problem is slowed or even by some miracle hauled, the addicts will shift their use over to some other substitute. The Commissioner of Public Safety was on the news yesterday explaining this crime increase as usurers who are “sick with addiction”. An accurate description of the addicts mind set.

What was the cause for crime to go up in 1975? Perhaps that may lead to some of the same answers why crime went up in 2012.

Was it drugs in 1975? The mids 70s is about when smoking POT became more wide-stream in American society.
Was it immigration in 1975? 1975 was the year of Boston Desegregation riots, thousands of Boston urban white residents with urban ways of life began moving from the city, into the small towns and small cities of New England.

The above is just two possible scenarios why crime went up in Maine, 1975.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975.

Empirefalls.
As a correction officer in 75 I can only tell you what we observed.
One this was a very liberal era in jurisprudence. The was a theory that we were going to reduce incarceration and most criminals would do time on streets (probation). We started to do away w/ parole and that ended in76 w/ new criminal code(Oct 76).example in early 70's if you did a crime you got an indeterminate sentence. Most lessor crimes felonies you did a 3 yr. sentence but only served 9monyths 6 days of it and went on parole.
On parole you had to :
Work
Could not drink
could not move out of town of residence w/out permission.
could not leave county
could not leave state
By mid 70's these restraints were reduced. I saw a person released from Windham on parole,abscond to florida,do a break in there serve 6 months in jail,return to Maine,turned himself in Wednesday evening,
returned to MCC that night and reappeared again before parole board Thursday am, he was released and beat me home in morning he lived near me! The took all controls off.
Additionally the next wave of drug offenses ,we were king from marijuana to that and speed ,were coming online and alcohol crime remained high. With little fear of significant punishment repeat offenses were common.
Property crime was very high.
An amusing example of this was given by district cout judge who was in Rockland and came to Brunswick to cover. The clerk my mother noticed him bringing a brown bag lunch and inquired why he wasn't going out anymore.
He responded that he stopped going out in Rockland because people would come up to him and scream at him for putting person on probation that had stolen their TV's!
This started to decrease and by July of 76 of the approx. 240 inmates at Windham over half were from Rockland area!
Remember also this was also a very permissive era in our country and fallout from protest era and Vietnam war was influencing much and the practice of blaming behavior on everyone else's fault started !
By 76 this trend started to decrease and systems went back to dealing with things more appropriately. Of course with new code in 76 we got determinate sentences (longer) until facilities hailed up and we went back to more split sentences , 5 yrs. all butX suspended. Leading us to the advent of the sex offender age in law enforcement which is a separate story.

Thanks for the stroll down the 1970's MCC run way. The 76 penal code worked about as well as most solutions in the criminal justice system.

Maine Law Enforcement Agency Uniform Crime Reports 1980 to 2005Maine Crime Rates 1960 - 2010

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/mecrime.htm

Your right Stephen it was a classic,about a four year delay to 80 when the only hot cause was sex abuse and judges figured out sex offenders didn't appeal sentences!
Oct 15 have sex w/ a 15 year old you got (9mos. and 6 days, Oct 17th same crime 5 years!
It worked until the DOC had to tell judges we are running out of beds!!!!
A Classic to this day when legislature passes a new crime the last ones counsulted is the keepers of the beds!!!

The UCR is not an entirety accurate tool for measuring crime in America. It was devised by Police Chiefs to give statistical values to crime and justify budget expansions.

The UCR only measures major crimes and misses many minor property crimes that are associated with drug use. Many scollars have argued that the UCR only measures reported crimes and many more crimes go unreported.

People who make a living studying crime spend their days grasping at theory and don't like to admit that human behavior is unpredictable. Deviant social behavior now has a more popular cult following.

Data Shows Fewer OUI 's
Maine Today Story

As police crack down on drunken driving this Fourth of July holiday week, an analysis of court data shows a 25 percent drop in the number of people charged with driving drunk in Maine over the past 10 years.

Some say fewer people are taking the chancer of driving under the influence because of tough penalties and tough talk. Others say the decline reflects cutbacks in law enforcement and increasing demands on officers, who have less time to patrol for drunken drivers.

Now for some Offical Police reasons for the data found in this story:

Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce said his department has issued slightly fewer drunken driving citations, but "aggressive deputies are still keeping their numbers up."

Col. Robert Williams, chief of the Maine State Police, said...."when he was working on the roads in the 1980s, he could pull over a half-dozen drunken drivers on a single Friday or Saturday night. "Now, you can be working hard and only get one in a weekend,"

Maj. William King of the York County Sheriff's Office said....." he believes that the stigma and penalties associated with drunken driving arrests are leading more people to arrange for designated drivers."

For others it's staffing, some might suggest the road blocks haven't been used as much for a while, and so on and so forth.

Stephen and Bruce -- thank you both, for your wise and reasoned contribution of important data and details on this discussion. AMG is lucky to have two correctional personnel who can offer such good, front-line information.

Thank you!

Aloha Naran and Mahalo

There are some who would rather see me crawl under a rock and keep criminal justice in the dark ages.