The state of Utah has ultimate jurisdiction on criminal law that takes place within its borders. This means that criminal cases in surrounding states — like Colorado and Nevada — don’t usually have anything to do with what happens in the Beehive State and vice versa.

One of the biggest misconceptions about people who have been convicted of a crime is that change is completely impossible. In reality, people do get out of prison and decide that they will not go back to that life again. They seek counseling. They quit harmful substances. They volunteer. They tell their story as a cautionary tale, so young people don’t end up with the same fate. They remedy their relationships with family and friends.‍

The most common crime in the state of Utah is also the most common crime in the United States — larceny, which is simply another word for “theft.” According to Pew Research Center, the U.S. experienced 1,401.9 cases per 100,000 people in 2022. That is a lot of cases. If we were to assume that every single one of them were committed by a different person, that would be about 1.4% of the population. 

No one wants to get arrested, and many people think they won’t ever get arrested. However, it’s impossible to predict if you will get arrested, even if you are innocent. Sometimes people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. According to the Utah Department of Public Safety, there were over 75,000 adult arrests and 8,000 juvenile arrests in Utah during 2020. You can think of that as more than 80,000 reasons to know what to do in case you get arrested. So here are five things you should do if you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of getting arrested in Utah.

Let’s say you are are in the middle of a heated conflict. Your coworker is making you mad and vice versa. You are at a point where you want to hurt him, but you want to do it in a way that won’t cause physical pain. You justify in your mind that because you won’t assault him, it’s okay.So one night, you break into his home and destroy his beautiful flat screen TV. It’s a nice setup, but you think it will be okay. You know that he makes a lot more than you, and he’ll be able to afford a new one.This is a bad idea. Not only would you likely get fired over this kind of thing, you would have committed a couple of very serious crimes including destruction of property, which is one of the 10 most common crimes in Utah. 

Have you ever been so mad that you wanted to hit someone? If you follow through, you could find yourself in jail or even prison. Assault is one of the most common crimes in Utah, and the amount of trouble you get in depends on the situation. 

When you think of the legal process, you probably imagine a lawyer in a courtroom cross-examining a witness in front of a jury and a judge. However, despite what you see on TV, a majority of cases do not go to trial. Most of them enter a plea agreement. 

When you do a Google image search for “burglar,” you get pictures of a stereotypical robber who is about to steal from a bank or jeweler. However, you may be surprised to find out burglary and theft are not the same thing. In fact, they are two separate crimes, and both make the list of the ten most common crimes in Utah. While they tend to go hand-in-hand, you can get charged with burglary without stealing a cent.

While Utah is a relatively safe place, one thing you should watch out for is fraud. It is one of the most common crimes in Utah. By definition, it is when someone uses deceit to take something from another person, such as money or property.