Quality of Life

Juvenile Justice

Key Takeaways

Juvenile arrest rates are trending down in Dodge County, while trending upward for Nebraska.

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A Look Into Juvenile Justice

Meet Judge Thomas Klein

In 2022, Judge Thomas Klein was appointed to the County Court for Nebraska’s Sixth Judicial District, which includes Dodge, Burt, Cedar, Dakota, Dixon, Thurston, and Washington counties. A Creighton University Law School graduate, Judge Klein has over three decades of legal experience spanning criminal, juvenile, family, probate, and civil law. He serves as Lead Judge of the Through the Eyes of the Child initiative, a multidisciplinary network of local teams that work to improve systems processes. It creates a forum for local child welfare and juvenile justice stakeholders to collaborate with each other in their efforts to improve issues in their communities' juvenile court systems as well as communicate with other teams and stakeholders across the state to identify systemic barriers and work on solutions.

What's included in this data?

This figure provides information about the count and rate of juvenile arrests in Dodge County and Nebraska. In the case of a juvenile (defined as under the age of 18) an arrest is counted when they are merely warned and released without any further action. The figure also shows how rates have changed over time, and includes trend lines. Rates are per 1,000 people. Rates are calculated by dividing the number of juvenile arrests each year by the population under 18, and multiplying by 1,000. Data from the Nebraska Crime Commission’s Crime Stats public reporting system was used to identify counts of juvenile arrests for Dodge County and Nebraska. Dodge County includes the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office, the Fremont Police Department, the Scribner Police Department, and the Dodge County State Patrol. Data on the population under 18 is from the US Census’ 2022 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

The population data for this figure is systematically gathered from a sample of people to provide estimates for the entire community. 5-year estimates are used rather than 1-year estimates because they provide more reliable estimates. Although 5‑year estimates from the American Community Survey are more dependable than 1‑year estimates, they are still estimates — not exact counts. Every estimate comes with a margin of error, and that margin gets bigger when looking at smaller places. For example, the data for Fremont has a larger margin of error than the data for Dodge County or for the state of Nebraska. You can check the original American Community Survey table for details on the margin of error. In Focus on Fremont, where American Community Survey 5-year estimates are the primary data source, we only point out changes that are statistically significant (based on whether the differences are greater than the margins of error). Any other increases or decreases shown in the figures should be viewed with caution, since they may not represent real change.