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Criminal Justice and Police Evaluation

NCJ Number
83551
Author(s)
S S Nagel
Date Published
Unknown
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Evaluation models can be tailored for criminology, police, courts, corrections, and allocation across criminal justice institutions.
Abstract
Police policy can benefit from the kind of evaluation associated with a statistical rather than an accounting form of benefit-cost analysis. One such application involves evaluating the desirability of excluding illegally-seized evidence as a means of increasing police adherence to legality, without unduly decreasing police morale. Courts policy can benefit from time-minimizing models, such as those designed to reorder the docketing of cases for trial to hear the shortest cases first. Waiting time can thereby be substantially reduced. Corrections policy can benefit from optimum level analysis, whereby optimum sentences are determined. Such sentences recognize that holding convicts in prison for lengthy periods produces excessive holding costs, while releasing offenders too soon produces criminal costs. Allocation across criminal justice institutions can benefit from the analysis of data showing the amount of anticrime dollars spent on various activities and places and the amount of crime which occurred at each time point or place. All of these policy evaluation methods have the potential for improving effectiveness, efficiency, and equity in policy. The various evaluation methodologies are graphically portrayed. A summary of the report is provided. (Author summary modified)