NCJ Number
80671
Date Published
1977
Length
118 pages
Annotation
Crime rates in South Dakota, correlates of crime in that State, data from components of the State's criminal justice system, and system resources are discussed for 1975 and 1976.
Abstract
In 1975, the South Dakota crime rate was just more than half the total rate of crime for the U.S. population. South Dakota also has the second lowest 1975 crime rate when compared with the neighboring States of North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. Although an accurate picture of crime in South Dakota's Indian reservations is not possible from the available data, the incomplete and inconsistent data indicate that the overall crime rate for reservations in 1975 was 41 percent higher than the overall crime rate for the rest of the State. The report's section on the correlates of crime in the State examines the relationship between crime and several socioeconomic variables in 15 of the State's counties. The law enforcement data provided consist of the number of offenses known to the police and the number of arrests, whole court data are based entirely on circuit court caseload statistics provided by the South Dakota judiciary. Court statistics include the number of preliminary hearings, guilty pleas, court trials, and jury trials for both felonies and misdemeanors. Dismissals from initial appearances, preliminary hearings, and arraignments are also included. Corrections data consisted primarily of information obtained from the State Penitentiary's annual report. This includes the number of inmates received from court sentencing for a given calendar year, the average and range of the daily number of inmates for the year, the number paroled for the year, the number of parole violators returned to the penitentiary, and the number released from the penitentiary for the year. Probation data are also provided. Data on system resources cover criminal justice expenditures and employment in the State, along with workload data. Data on the number of inmates in State and Federal prisons on January 1, 1976, and January 1, 1977, are appended.