NCJ Number
115427
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1989) Pages: 169-173
Date Published
1989
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The author argues that the social costs of leaving offenders in the community are far greater than the cost of confining them for an equivalent period and disputes critics who mistake his position to mean that a reduction in crime would lead to savings in public and private expenditures for safety.
Abstract
The social costs of community-based release alternatives are computed at $430,000, while the cost of confinement for an equivalent period is calculated to be $25,000. The figures for community probation include the costs of crimes committed during probation. Statistics consulted for this and an opposing study included the 1982 Rand report of inmate self-reported criminal activity and victim-reported crimes from the National Crime Survey. The author points out that some crimes cannot be compared between the two surveys because they are not similar. Thus, critics relying on direct comparisons between the two surveys will produce faulty data. When attempting to analyze the social costs of crimes in the development of confinement policy, researches should make certain they are measuring the effects of similar crimes. 10 references.