Beyond taxes and education spending, the Iowa Legislature passed numerous laws creating new crimes, increasing penalties for others — which were not listed as priorities before the session’s start.

While they were not as high-profile as some education and state government bills during the session, these changes to Iowa’s criminal code and regulatory structure together made up the majority of the 151 bills the Legislature passed this year. Judiciary bills that did make waves during session included criminalizing being an undocumented migrant in the state and authorizing state law enforcement to deport undocumented people they find in Iowa, and creating immunity for people acting based on their religious belief.

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A growing share of Americans say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress to address this year. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) hold that view today, up from 47% at the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021.

With the issue likely to come up in this year’s presidential election, here’s what we know about crime in the United States, based on the latest available data from the federal government and other sources.

How much crime is there in the U.S.?

It’s difficult to say for certain. The two primary sources of government crime statistics – the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) – paint an incomplete picture.

The FBI publishes annual data on crimes that have been reported to law enforcement, but not crimes that haven’t been reported. Historically, the FBI has also only published statistics about a handful of specific violent and property crimes, but not many other types of crime, such as drug crime. And while the FBI’s data is based on information from thousands of federal, state, county, city and other police departments, not all law enforcement agencies participate every year. In 2022, the most recent full year with available statistics, the FBI received data from 83% of participating agencies.

BJS, for its part, tracks crime by fielding a large annual survey of Americans ages 12 and older and asking them whether they were the victim of certain types of crime in the past six months. One advantage of this approach is that it captures both reported and unreported crimes. But the BJS survey has limitations of its own. Like the FBI, it focuses mainly on a handful of violent and property crimes. And since the BJS data is based on after-the-fact interviews with crime victims, it cannot provide information about one especially high-profile type of offense: murder.

All those caveats aside, looking at the FBI and BJS statistics side-by-side does give researchers a good picture of U.S. violent and property crime rates and how they have changed over time. In addition, the FBI is transitioning to a new data collection system – known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System – that eventually will provide national information on a much larger set of crimes, as well as details such as the time and place they occur and the types of weapons involved, if applicable.

Which kinds of crime are most and least common?

Property crime in the U.S. is much more common than violent crime. In 2022, the FBI reported a total of 1,954.4 property crimes per 100,000 people, compared with 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

By far the most common form of property crime in 2022 was larceny/theft, followed by motor vehicle theft and burglary. Among violent crimes, aggravated assault was the most common offense, followed by robbery, rape, and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter.

BJS tracks a slightly different set of offenses from the FBI, but it finds the same overall patterns, with theft the most common form of property crime in 2022 and assault the most common form of violent crime.

You can read the full article at Pew Research Center.

United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that throughout 2023, federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies seized 368 firearms that were possessed in violation of federal law. In the same year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota charged approximately 93 defendants with illegally owning, possessing, using, or obtaining one or more such firearms.

“Through these firearm seizures, we are confident law enforcement agencies prevented countless violent and drug-related crimes from occurring in communities across South Dakota,” said U.S. Attorney Alison Ramsdell. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is grateful for the strong law enforcement partnerships in South Dakota, which allow us to combine federal, state, and tribal resources to target some of the most dangerous individuals in our state and remove illegal firearms from our streets.”

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Criminal liability is a legal concept that holds individuals responsible for their actions or omissions if they are found to have committed a criminal act. Criminal liability differs from civil liability, which is based on the breach of a contract or tort. To be considered criminally liable, an individual must have acted with intention or negligently and thus there must be both an actus reus and mens rea.

Criminal liability is a complex concept that can have far-reaching legal implications. This article will provide an in-depth look at the concept of criminal liability, its various forms, and the legal consequences that may result from it.

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The company that gave electronic tablets to South Dakota prison inmates under a contract with the state hid a 2020 data breach for nine months and then told only a fraction of affected users about it, according to a settlement filed in late February with the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC’s decision and order in the data breach and fraud case against Global Tel Link (GTL) was issued on Feb. 27, two weeks before the South Dakota Department of Corrections suspended tablet-based phone calls and text messages for about 3,600 inmates.

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It will be a state crime for a person to be in Iowa if previously denied admission to or removed from the United States under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday.

The law, which takes effect July 1, targets “certain aliens,” according to the text of Senate File 2340. It has elevated anxiety in Iowa’s immigrant communities and has prompted questions among legal experts and law enforcement on how it will be enforced. It mirrors part of a Texas law that is currently blocked in court.

In Iowa and across the country, Republican leaders have accused President Biden of neglecting his responsibilities to enforce federal immigration law, leading Republican governors to send troops to Texas and legislatures to propose a variety of state-level strategies.

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Iowa is facing a critical workforce shortage. With just 67 workers available for every 100 open jobs in our state, and a third of Iowan businesses reporting vacancies, lawmakers must act quickly to implement smart policy solutions.

To develop Iowa’s workforce, help our businesses thrive, and ensure a prosperous future, we need to remove barriers to work and find creative ways to incentivize employment. Bipartisan legislation that nearly unanimously passed the Iowa House of Representatives last year would do just that. The bill, House File 349, would incentivize Iowans on probation to find and keep jobs by reducing their probation terms for every six months of verifiable employment or for the completion of various education and vocational training programs.

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Federal funding will help to update a law enforcement information sharing network based in Dakota County.

The $963,000 will help build a new “state of the art” records management system, officials say.

The Criminal Justice Network has been up and running since the early 2000s. Dakota County and several cities use the network to share information quickly between law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and probation officers.

Police say the network helps them to get quick, accurate information, which isn’t always easy if different law enforcement groups have different information or filing processes.

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At any given time in a year, there are roughly 15,000 warrants on file in Minnehaha County, any of which could lead to an arrest. Those crimes behind those warrants range from unpaid traffic tickets to assault or homicide.

To the criminal justice system, they’re treated the same. Some are trivial in relation to larger crimes, but the backlog can clog up the system and cost taxpayer dollars, said Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead.

For those named on the warrants, failure to pay that traffic ticket can mean being thrown in jail, which could disrupt their life, stress relationships, cause job loss or create financial stress.

The recently completed pilot of a Warrant Resolution Court in Sioux Falls aims to show how counties can alleviate that stress on law enforcement and the court system.

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Not every child who runs afoul of the law belongs in the criminal justice system. Pennington County State’s Attorney Lara Roetzel believes this firmly after more than 25 years as a prosecutor.

“Statistics have shown that once a kid goes into the criminal justice system, they usually don’t get out of it,” said Roetzel. She explained most young people who enter probation struggle to keep out of trouble because “kids are kids.”

Continue reading “Keeping kids out of the juvenile justice system in South Dakota” →