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PROCESSING SERIOUS CRIMES IN ALASKA: DO DIFFERENCES EXIST?

NCJ Number
144187
Journal
Alaska Justice Forum Volume: 10 Dated: (Spring 1993) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1993
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This newsletter of the University of Alaska Justice Center contains two leading articles.
Abstract
The first discusses the processing of serious crimes in Alaska, and examines whether the handling of rape cases differs from the handling of other violent felonies. An analysis of Alaska Offender-Based Transaction Statistics (OBTS) leads to several conclusions: the overall percentage of persons prosecuted for rape is lowest among the four violent crimes studied (rape, homicide, robbery, and assault); the percentage of persons prosecuted for rape was lowest during recent years when rape rates were rising; and the likelihood of being convicted on any charge when arrested for rape was lower on average than for any other violent crime. The second article reviews Bureau of Justice Statistics figures on State and Federal prisons in terms of prison population, length of sentence, rates of incarceration, percentage of court commitments sentenced for drug offenses, and the rise in probability of incarceration for serious crimes.