Juvenile arrests for Black youth are *not* up in Colorado post-legalization. I've commented below to explain the issue. #science
1) The source for this assertion comes from the following document: cdpsdocs.state.co.us/ors/docs/repor…
2) It says the following on page 8: "The number of African‐American juvenile arrests increased from 205 in 2012 to 324 in 2014 (+58%)." But you have to READ THE TABLES and the FOOTNOTES!
3) On page 100, the juvenile arrest rates for the state are listed as 598, 571, and 611 for 2012, 2013, and 2014. The rates for Denver are missing for 2012 and 2013, and was 646 in 2014. (Appendix C, Table 3.)
4) The Footnote to Appendix C, Table 3 says: "Denver’s reported marijuana arrest data for 2012 and 2013 was incomplete due to separate jail arrest and citation systems. Cite and release data were not reported to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation until July 2013."
5) The Footnote to Appendix C, Table 3 continues: "Additionally, the 2014 arrest data reported by Denver include a non‐criminal civil citation, which lead to an over‐reporting of marijuana arrests for that year."
6) Basically, Colorado began reporting crime data to the federal database and the first few years of reporting were rocky, especially for Denver.
7) There's more! In Appendix L, Denver PD reports their own numbers (NOT RATES) of Black youth who were arrested, and it was 467, 209, and 97 for 2012, 2013, and 2014. Most Black people in CO live in Denver.
8) A state analysis that doesn't account for missing data from a major city is insufficient for making policy decisions. Because the data are not reliable, we truly do not know how the arrest rate changed among Black youth in CO post retail marijuana.
