Youth Arrest and Summons Data Trends
Annual number of youth arrests and summons in Massachusetts since fiscal year 2018.
A youth’s first interaction with the juvenile justice system typically occurs with a police officer. Police have a variety of ways of responding to youth they believe have committed a crime:
- Making an arrest, which means the youth was taken into police custody ("custodial arrest") because the police officer found probable cause that a felony has occurred, has directly observed a misdemeanor offense, or was responding to a court-ordered arrest warrant.
- Issuing a summons to appear in court, which notifies a youth of the alleged offense and orders them to appear in court. While a youth is not taken into police custody, a summons is a formal entrance into the juvenile justice system.
- Diverting the youth, which may include informal responses outside of the juvenile justice system. For example, an officer can give the youth a warning.
This page details the number of arrests and summons issued each year as reported by the Trial Courts. An application for delinquent complaint may be filed with the Clerk Magistrate’s office when a police officer or other person believes a youth has committed a delinquent offense. The application for delinquent complaint is the first step in the court process. The Trial Court reports applications initiated via an arrests or summons based on whether a clerk’s hearing was scheduled, as hearings are usually not scheduled when a case is initiated by arrest.
Historically, this page included data on custodial arrests, sourced from data reported by local police departments to the federal National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS is the official federal reporting system. However, the JJPAD Board suspects the number of reported custodial arrests in the NIBRS system is an undercount, which the Board discusses in detail in the JJPAD 2021 Annual Report. As a result, the Trial Court’s applications for complaint data currently provides the most accurate measure of the total number of arrests and summons issued each year.
For more information on other researchers’ concerns about the quality of NIBRS data more generally, see the “About the Data” section below.
Youth Arrest and Summons Data Trends by Demographic and Geographic Breakdowns
Estimated percentages for the race of all Massachusetts youth, ages 12 to 17, in 2020 (Source: EZAPOP; Download this data.)
The visualization below shows total arrests and summons by fiscal year and the demographics of the youth who were arrested. From the drop-down menu, you can select a demographic variable (race/ethnicity, gender, or age) of interest and see the breakdown of that variable in youth arrests and summons over time. You can also look at data by percent change in arrests or summons in that category year over year.
You can also view the demographic data of youth arrested or summonsed in a particular court county by selecting a county from the drop-down menu.
As a point of comparison, this page also includes a visualization showing the racial distribution for all Massachusetts youth (not just those in the juvenile justice system) based on U.S. Census data.
The visualization above, shows total arrests or summons by fiscal year by court county. You can use the drop-down menu to also see the percent change in either arrests or summons by county. Also, there is an option to select which fiscal year’s data you would like to display.
Youth Arrest and Summons Data Trends by Offense Type and Severity
The first visualization below shows what types of offenses youth were arrested or summonsed for, and how that has changed over time. These offense types are the same as those used by the adult court system with a few exceptions: public order offenses include “school disturbance” case types, and sex offenses are included in the “person” offense category.
The second visualization below shows the severity of the offense youth were arrested or summonsed for, and how that has changed over time. The Trial Court reports offense severity by classifying offenses as a misdemeanor offense or a felony offense. Misdemeanor offenses are lower severity offense types, while felony offenses are more serious.
In both visualizations, you can also look at data by either the total number of arrests or summons in a given category, or the percent change in arrests or summons in that category year over year.
You can also view data on the number of youth arrested or summonsed in a particular court county by selecting a county from the drop-down menu.
Overnight Arrest Data Trends
Annual number of youth overnight arrests in Massachusetts since fiscal year 2015.
An Overnight Arrest (ONA) occurs when a youth has been arrested by the police (either on a new offense or an active warrant) when court is not in session (i.e., outside of business hours) and is held in a Department of Youth Services (DYS) ONA facility overnight or until the next court day. These facilities vary on security levels and may be operated by DYS or other contracted providers. By federal law, a juvenile cannot not be held in a police lock-up for more than six hours.
Overnight Arrest Data: Demographic and Geographic Breakdowns
Estimated percentages for the race of all Massachusetts youth, ages 12 to 17, in 2020 (Source: EZAPOP; Download this data.)
"Demographics of overnight arrests to DYS", below, shows total overnight arrest admissions and demographics over time. From the drop down menu, you can select a demographic variable (race/ethnicity, gender, or age) of interest and see the breakdown of that variable in youth overnight arrests over time.
You can also look at data by calendar year or fiscal year, and look at either the total number of overnight arrests in a given category, or the percent change in overnight arrests in that category year over year .
As a point of comparison, this page also includes a visualization showing the racial distribution for all Massachusetts youth (not just those in the juvenile justice system) based on U.S. Census data.
Below, select a county to see how many overnight arrest admissions occurred that year or to see the percent change in admissions from the previous year. You can also select to view the number of overnight arrest admissions in each court county per 10,000 youth (ages 12-17) in that county. To change the year, select the option from the drop-down menu.
The first visualization shows where youth reside (home county). The second shows where a youth was arrested (sending county). Sending county data is unavailable for 2021.
A heat map shows annual overnight arrests by home county (where the youth resides) and sending county (where the youth was arrested). Sending county uses the Massachusetts Juvenile Court jurisdictions of 11 divisions across the state: combining Franklin and Hampshire counties, and Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties along with the town of Plymouth.
Overnight Arrest Data: Offense Types and Severity
The visualizations below show what types of offenses youth with an overnight arrest admission were arrested for, and how that has changed over time.
You can also look at data by calendar year or fiscal year, and look at either the total number of overnight arrests in a given category, or the percent change in overnight arrests in that category year over year .
Statewide overnight youth arrests are shown by offense type for each fiscal year since 2015.
Annual overnight arrest admissions to DYS by MSO grid level since 2015.
*Grid level 7 is reserved for youth sentenced in adult court for murder and is not reflected in this graph.
The Department of Youth Services categorizes the seriousness of offense by “grid level.” This is a numeric representation ranging from 1 (least serious) to 7 (most serious), based on the adult sentencing guidelines.
Examples of common offense types for each grid level include:
1- Disturbing the peace, Petty larceny, Possession of marijuana
2- Possession of cocaine, Assault and battery
3- Breaking and entering (felony), Larceny (felony)
4- Assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, Armed robbery
5-Armed assault and robbery, Attempted murder
6- Car jacking with a firearm
7*- Murder
The next visualization indicates the MSO Grid Level for new overnight arrest admissions.
About the Data
Data Obtained From:
Data on arrests and summons is obtained from the Trial Court's Public Dashboards. Beginning in 2021, the Trial Court began publicly reporting on the number of applications for complaint initiated by an arrest or by a summons.
Overnight arrest data comes from the Department of Youth Services.
Juvenile population data is sourced from Easy Access to Juvenile Populations (EZAPOP), a data analysis tool available through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)’s Statistical Briefing Book. The population estimates provided are derived from data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and subsequently modified by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). To learn more about the data click here.
Previously, this page reported data on custodial arrests (which is a combination of the “on-view” and “taken into custody” arrest types) as reported to the OCA by the Executive Office Of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS), using data reported by local police departments to the federal National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). However, due to data quality concerns (detailed further, below), the OCA has archived those data visualizations and instead, reports the number of arrests/summons as reported by the Trial Court here. You can find the archived visualizations here.
NIBRS Data Quality Concerns:
NIBRS data includes details on each single crime incident, as well as on separate offenses within the same incident and is reported to the FBI by local law enforcement organizations. In 2021, NIBRS became the only official federal reporting system. Data from prior years comes from both NIBRS and the since retired Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program’s Summary Reporting System (SRS). To learn more about the transition, click here. To learn more about the data click here. Most major cities and towns report their custodial arrest data via NIBRS. Until recently, Boston provided their data utilizing summary reporting. Data on arrests by the Boston Police Department seen here was collected and reported out by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC). (As of November 2019, Boston began reporting to NIBRS.) Data on arrests by the Lawrence police department is unavailable prior to 2020. However, in January of 2020, Lawrence did begin reporting arrests in accordance with NIBRS. If a city or town is listed as having "zero" youth arrests in a given year, it means that the city or town is on record as having reported data to NIBRS that year, but no arrests of individuals under 18 were included in that data. If a city or town is listed as having "No Data" (at all or for a given year), that means that there is no record of that city or town reporting data to NIBRS that year. In some cases this is because the city/town did not file a report with NIBRS; in other cases, it may be that there were no arrests in that town that year to report.
- One study from January 2022 compared NIBRS arrest data to data collected directly from law enforcement agencies and found data matched in just 84% of cases.
- Other, somewhat older, studies have found missing data in the NIBRS system at the incident level, as well as agencies not reporting data for all or part of years.
- Numerous nonprofit organizations have raised concerns about data reporting. Some recent examples include:
For troubleshooting data visualizations, visit this page.
For any questions about what is presented here, or to report any problems with these pages, please contact: kristine.polizzano@mass.gov
Definitions:
Diversion: Any program that allows youth who commit an offense to be directed away from more formal juvenile justice system involvement. In the context of youth arrests, diversion means giving a youth a warning or referring them to a program rather than making an arrest or issuing a court summons.
Felony: Any serious crime which, if committed by an adult, could be punished by incarceration in state prison.
Fiscal year: From July 1 through June 30 of the year listed.
Gender: DYS reports sex assigned at birth with the following options: Male or Female. Youth are asked to self-identify.
Misdemeanor: A less serious crime such as trespassing or shoplifting.
Probable cause: A legal term meaning that there is more evidence to show that a crime has been committed than there is to show that a crime has not been committed.
Race/ethnicity: Historically, the Trial Court reports race and ethnicity data with the following categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic/Latinx and Other. The Other category is a consolidation of American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Other, and Multiracial, due to low case numbers in these groups. Youth are asked to self-identify.
DYS reports with the following options: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Chooses not to self-identify, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, White, Multiracial (if more than one selected). Ethnicity is self-reported – “Yes” or “No”— as Hispanic.
Due to the small numbers of youth, individuals in the following race categories are reported in "Other" in these visualizations: American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and Unknown race categories.
In these visualizations, youth who are identified as Hispanic/Latino and any other race are categorized as "Hispanic/Latino."
Additional Resources
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Open XLSX file, 208.53 KB, Data about youth arrests (English, XLSX 208.53 KB)
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Open XLSX file, 47.39 KB, Data about overnight youth arrests (English, XLSX 47.39 KB)
| Date published: | November 2, 2020 |
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| Last updated: | September 29, 2021 |