Juvenile prosecutions were down last year in Rosemount

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Young people in Rosemount got in less trouble last year than they did in 2010.

The number of juveniles charged with crimes decreased from 75 in 2010 to 62 last year, according to statistics released last week by the Dakota County Attorney’s office. The decrease is in keeping with a countywide trend of decreasing charges against juveniles.

Countywide there were 1,334 charges against juveniles in 2011, down from 1,445 in 2010.

“It is a good sign that the number of youth charged with a crime in our community continues to drop as the population estimate of our 10- to 17-year-olds increased by 3 percent over the past 10 years,” county attorney James Backstrom said.

Most of the charges filed against juveniles in Rosemount were for misdemeanor or petty misdemeanor offenses. There were 49 individuals charged with 62 offenses at that level last year.

Most common were disorderly conduct-related charges with 15 instances. Next were charges for theft with 13. No other category of offense reached double digits. There were five charges for theft, four for traffic misdemeanors and four for obstructing justice.

There were only two gross misdemeanor charges against a juvenile last year in Farmington. One charge was for theft, the other for forgery. Both were filed against the same individual.

The rest of the charges, 31 against 12 individuals, were for felony-level offenses. Assault-related charges were the most common with 11. There were five felony-level charges for burglary and eight for robbery.

Crimes of violence were up last year among juveniles. There were 383 charges filed last year for crimes involving violence, compared to 320 in 2010. Most common were charges of misdemeanor assault, which increased by 10 percent, from 205 offenses to 226.

Twenty-five to 30 percent of juvenile crimes occur on school property.

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