The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Native American Crime in the Northwest: 2004- 2008 – BIA Information from Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington Author: Gary R. Leonardson, Ph.D. Document No.: 227727 Date Received: July 2009 Award Number: 2007-BJ-CX-K020 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Section 1 Native American Crime in the Northwest: 2004-2008 – BIA Information from Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington By Gary R. Leonardson, Ph.D. MPR 55 Rodeo Trail, Dillon, MT 59725 406-683-6424 [email protected] Prepared for the Montana Board of Crime Control July 2009 This project was supported by grant number 2007-BJ-CX-K020 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Final Report – July 2009 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the Montana Board of Crime Control for making this project possible. The staff members of each of these Federal and State agencies have been very helpful in providing direct assistance and background materials. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gary R. Leonardson is the director of Mountain Plains Research in Dillon, Montana. He has been conducting private consulting work for more than 20 years, along with working at two universities. Dr. Leonardson has contracted with or done major statistical, research, and evaluation work for the Federal government, including the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, the Center for Disease Control, Indian Health Service, Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Education, National Institute of Corrections, and grants from the National Institutes of Health. He has been the project evaluator for fourteen major Federal projects, conducted numerous local and state research projects, evaluations, and surveys, and has assisted in examining many important issues including: substance use and abuse, disproportionate minority contact, teen pregnancy, mental health issues, prevention programs, pregnancy outcomes, rural issues, social impact assessments, educational programs, systems of care, aftercare programs, parole programs, minor in possession research, sentencing guidelines, drug task force assessments, substance abuse treatment outcomes, and related areas. He has 20 years experience working with American Indian/Alaska Native programs. He has more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed professional journals. Section 1 of Report 2 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Final Report – July 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE OVERALL RESULTS SECTION Page Number I. List of Tables 4 II. Executive Summary 5 III. Introduction 6 IV. Overall Results 7 V. Limitations 40 VI. Definitions 40 Section 1 of Report 3 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Final Report – July 2009 I. LIST OF TABLES OVERALL RESULTS SECTION Table Number Page Number 1. Listing of Law Enforcement Agencies and the Number of Offenses Reported 7 2. Total Number of Offenses Reported by Agency 10 3. Listing of Crimes Committed/Crimes Cleared by Agency 12 4. Alcohol Use and Crime 14 5. Drug Use and Crime 16 6. Numbers and Percents of Total for Different Types of Offenses 18 7. Types of Offenses – Number of Offenses Reported - All Agencies 20 8. Percent of Crimes Committed under the Influence of Alcohol 21 9. Percent of Crimes Committed under the Influence of Drugs 23 10. Offenses Cleared by Arrest or Exceptional Means 24 11. Comparison of Clearance Rates 25 12. Juveniles Compared with Overall Total 26 13. Percent Offenses Committed by Juveniles 27 14. Population Comparisons 28 15. Information for Crime Index Values 30 16. Index Crime Rates 32 17. Property and Violent Offense Rates – 2004-2008 34 18. Other Information Reported by Law Enforcement – 2007 36 19. Other Information Reported by Law Enforcement – 2008 38 Section 1 of Report 4 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Final Report – July 2009 II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY • This project is important because very little information on tribal offenses has been reported. • Reportable information was available on 43 of the 47 tribal agencies for at least one of the years from 2004-2008. • Tribal agencies furnishing information for this report had very high offense clearance rates with 60.7 percent of all crimes cleared in 2004, 87.6 percent cleared in 2005, 42.4 percent in 2006, 55.9 percent in 2007, and 61.4 percent in 2008. The overall average for the five years is 58.0%. In considering the aggregate results for the five years, the offenses with the highest clearance rates included: homicide (87.0%), elderly abuse (86.0%), disorderly conduct (80.6%), drunkenness (80.0%), child abuse (78.4%), liquor laws (75.2%), and aggravated assault (74.7%). • The aggregate clearance rates reported by the tribes were significantly higher for each of the eight Index crimes than it was for all reporting agencies in the U.S, non-metropolitan agencies in the U.S., and law enforcement agencies in the Western U.S. • In considering the total number of offenses for 2004-2008, alcohol was involved in about one-third of the offenses. • As would be expected the direct substance use crimes of drunkenness (85.8%), liquor laws (74.3%), and DWI (72.3%) had the highest percent of alcohol involvement. Alcohol use for non-direct alcohol offenses was most common for: disorderly conduct (68.9%), elderly abuse (58.1%), child abuse (56.1%), homicide (55.0%), attempted forcible rape (52.1%), aggravated assault (48.9%), and assault (46.2%). • Outside of direct drug violations (74.4%), the influence of drug use was most common for: prostitution/commercialized vice (17.4%), attempted suicide (7.5%), stolen property (7.3%), completed suicide (7.1%), elderly abuse (7.0%), and homicide (7.0%). • The most commonly reported offenses (outside ‘All Other Offenses’) were: drunkenness, disorderly conduct, liquor laws, DWI, suspicious person report, assault, and domestic violence. • Index crime rates for the combined tribal groups were: 2004 (2933), 2005 (3182) 2006 (3413), 2007 (3443), and 2008 (2472). These rates were relatively low when compared with the overall United States rates of 3977 for 2004, 3901 for 2005, 3809 for 2006 and 3731 for 2008. Section 1 of Report 5 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Final Report – July 2009 III. INTRODUCTION According to the 2000 census, American Indians and Alaska Natives account for about 1.5 percent or 4.3 million people in the United States. Most (2.5 million) of these listed “American Indian” or “Alaska Native” as their only racial category, while some (1.8 million) indicated “ American Indian” or “Alaska Native” along with one or more additional race categories. It is estimated that nearly half (43.5%) of all American Indians/Alaska Natives reside on Federal reservations or in a tribal statistical area during the 2000 Census.1 The percents by state of American Indian or Alaska Native for the states covered in this report are: Alaska (16.0%), Washington, (1.7%), Idaho (1.4%), Oregon (1.4%), Montana (6.5%), and Wyoming (2.4%).2 The offense information for the report was provided by the Office of Law Enforcement and Security within District 5 of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Billings, Montana. District 5 includes three regions (Mountain, Northwest, and Juneau) with 47 Tribes, covering the states of Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The report is segmented into three separate reports. The first Section presents the overall results, the second Section provides information by each of the six states, and third Section presents information by tribe or special law enforcement agency.