A Service of The Arrow           Friday May 12, 2000 2:26 PM

By: MATT HAWKINS

Despite praise for the decline in crime rates across the country, here in the Flathead Valley, crime among juveniles is increasing more rapidly than ever.

In 1990, Flathead County had three probation officers working with a load of approximately 30 to 35 juveniles each. But now – despite the addition of two more officers – the caseload has risen to as many as 60 offenders per officer.

The rash of thefts recently seen at FHS drives this point even further home, but petty thefts are, unfortunately, taking a back seat to more serious crimes. Over the past ten years the number of juveniles committing serious crimes has risen more than twelve-fold.

"Serious crimes by juveniles in our office," says deputy probation officer Jon Smith, "have gone way up in the past five to seven years."

Usually instances of increased crime are accompanied by increases in drug use and abuse among criminals, but according to the Youth at Risk survey administered to Flathead County high schools, drug and alcohol abuse are remaining fairly constant.

"This is a very unusual situation," said University of Montana professor of sociology Steven Laurence. "Common sense tells us that the two (drugs and crime) should follow very similar paths."

In fact, in the last decade, marijuana use among teenargers has increased only five percent — less than 1/50 the growth rate of youth crime in our area.

A partial explanation can be found in the growth of the Flathead Valley itself, which has experienced an increase in population of approximately thirty three percent over the last ten years.

But whatever the cause, some believe the solution is education, and they praise the employment of Resource Officers like Wade Rademacher.

"The way to eliminate a disease is to teach people how to keep from contracting it," said Laurence. "Society has proven that the same concept applies elsewhere, and it is my belief that teaching children both the law and its necessity, we can end this epidemic as well."

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