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Controlling the Crime Rate Through Imprisonment (From Crime and Public Policy, P 251-269, 1983, James Q Wilson, ed. - See NCJ-91045)

NCJ Number
91058
Author(s)
P W Greenwood
Date Published
1983
Length
19 pages
Annotation
The use of selective incapacitation offers one potentially effective method of crime reduction, since less than half of all active criminals commit enough crimes that their incarceration could lead to significant reductions in crime.
Abstract
A strong correlation exists between career criminality and certain obvious traits: prior convictions for serious crime, involvement in serious crime as a juvenile, and unemployment. Selective incapacitation would aim to ensure that offenders with predicted high rates of offenses would serve the longest terms. In most jurisdictions, selective incapacitation offers a means of increasing incapacitation effects without increasing the level of incarceration. However, developing such a policy entails both technical problems and legal and moral issues. The concept of selective incapacitation is controversial, both because it conflicts with other theories of sentencing and because it makes explicit issues that remain hidden by traditional sentencing practices. A State that decided to use selective incapacitation would have to begin by determining the distribution of individual offense rates among its offenders and identifying the factors that predict high offense rates. It would also have to estimate sentencing patterns for each type of offender to estimate the total number of offenders and to provide a base for comparing alternative policies. Finally, it would have to evaluate alternative sentencing strategies. In setting the policy, it would also have to project its future crime rates and incarceration capacity and develop a pattern of minimum sentences, based on just deserts and deterrence considerations, to estimate the incarcerated population. A table and a figure are included.

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